Medical students face debts of £67,000 if cap on fees is abolished

The British Medical Association said trainee doctors in London will face the huge debts if the current cap on tuition fees is lifted next year.

The rising cost of training would put off students from lower income backgrounds and leave the NHS staffed disproportionately by doctors from wealthy backgrounds, experts said.

Medical students from poorer families are already at risk of dropping out of courses because their parents can no longer support them during the credit crunch, a spokesman for the BMA said.

There are also fears that medical students will find it more difficult to secure loans and find part-time jobs to support themselves as a result of the current downturn.

Tom Foley, a 27-year-old trainee doctor and BMA spokesman on medical student finance, said: "As unemployment rises and economic problems increase it is likely that lower income families will have less money to spend helping their children through medical school. Students are also finding it more difficult to get study loans from banks -something that I could not have got through university without - and may find it increasingly challenging to get part-time work or work in term breaks as everyone scrambles for a limited number of vacancies."

Currently tuition fees are capped at £3,145 a year. Medical students leave university with an average £21,000 debt. They face higher costs because their degrees run for longer.

The government will review the cap on tuition fees this year. If the cap is lifted altogether some universities are expected to charge anything from £4,000 to £20,000 a year. This will leave average medical school debt at £67,000 when living costs are taken into account, the BMA said.

The BMA's national student debt report, which will be published tomorrow, surveyed medical students and found only five per cent were from a semi or unskilled background, while seven per cent have parents who are skilled tradespeople.

It also found parents of medical students give their children on average £3,000 a year to live on, while those from poorer backgrounds get £2,100.

Mr Foley said: "Entry to medicine should be based on merit, not on the size of someone's bank balance."

Medical student Louise Mcmenemy, 23, from King's College school of medicine, said she can afford to study only because she is being sponsored by the Royal Navy. It means she must work for the Navy for seven years before going into the NHS.

She said: "I get a £14,000-a-year salary from the Navy which means I no longer have to work in the evenings while I am studying. For the health profession to be successful we need it to represent the population it serves."