Junior doctors jobs go abroad (for second year running)

Record numbers of British junior doctors face unemployment this year after a court ruled that they will have to compete for jobs on equal terms with foreign medics.

The decision means that three junior doctors - who each cost the taxpayer £250,000 to put through medical school - will be chasing every training post.

Last year, two were chasing each position.

Doctors' leaders blamed the Government for the situationand warned that thousands of young British medics will be forced to work abroad.

Doctors who miss out on a training post cannot become a GP or a specialist.

Critics say the increased competition from foreign doctors made a mockery of Gordon Brown's statement at the Labour conference in September that he wanted "British jobs for British workers".

The problem stems from a Court of Appeal ruling in November, when the British Association of Physicians of Indian Origin successfully challenged Department of Health guidance that foreign doctors could be considered for a training post only if there was no suitable graduate from Britain or the EU.

The ruling - which the Government is considering appealing against - means that 16,000 international doctors training in the UK have to be treated the same as British candidates applying for a post.

The situation has been exacerbated by a cut in the number of training posts from 15,600 to 9,000 due to changes introduced last year guaranteeing places to doctors who have already started their training, stopping the free-for-all which allowed medics to compete for posts which already had trainees in situ.

Doctors from outside the EU will account for half of all applicants this year.

But there has also been a sharp increase in the number of domestic doctors being trained, as three new medical schools have opened in the past decade.

The problems follow the chaotic introduction last year of an online application system for junior doctors, which left thousands without jobs. The system has now been scrapped.

Shadow Health Secretary Andrew Lansley blamed the Government for misjudging the number of doctors needed in the NHS.

He said: "For many years Britain has depended on overseas doctors coming to the UK for their training.

"Many of those who have been here for some time have a legitimate expectation that they can complete their training here.

"What is important is that we fulfil our obligations to them, but turn off the tap so that non-EU doctors are not continuing to overload our training opportunities.

"Unless the Government recognises the need for additional posts, we will see a new lost tribe of doctors who fail to complete training, even though many are well qualified."

Dr Chris McCullough, of doctors' pressure group Remedy UK, claimed some doctors faced a one-in-19 chance of securing a post.

He said: "With this level of competition and last year's fiasco, we have little confidence that the best doctors will be appointed."

Ram Moorthy, of the British Medical Association, added: "It can't be right that UK taxpayers fund many junior doctors who are then lost to the NHS."

A Department of Health spokeswoman said: "We know that for 2008 there will be many more applicants than there are training posts.

"This is not least because graduates from outside the EU will have the same right of access as UK graduates.

"We have tried to prioritise UK graduates but were prevented from doing so by the Court of Appeal ruling.

"We have been given leave to appeal against that decision and are investigating other means of giving preference to UK junior doctors."

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'I fear we'll never find places' says a British medic

General surgeon Sarvi Banisadr is one of the British medics who may be forced to move abroad after struggling to find a training place since she qualified in 2006.

The 30-year-old from Dulwich, South London, said: "There are hundreds of junior surgeons waiting in London alone.

"The new system is so disorganised, we fear we may never get in. We have heard so many promises, 'Just stick with it, if you're good enough you'll get in', but after two years you start to lose heart.

"A few days ago I found out that there are no surgical jobs at all in the South East this time around.

"I'm thinking of moving to Australia but I don't want to - I've lived in Britain my whole life."