Junior Doctors Are Quitting Our Crumbling NHS

New medics bailing out for better pay and conditions in the world of finance

- Ellie Forbes

THE new leader of the Scottish doctors' national body revealed yesterday that junior medics are quitting for better-paid jobs in finance.

Dr. Iain Kennedy, who took over as chair of British Medical Association Scotland earlier this month, said clinicians are more worried than ever about a looming winter crisis.

He said junior doctors, who earn about £27,500 a year, are quitting medicine within two years of completing training to take up jobs in the finance sector.

And he warned that general practice, in particular, is "in a very precarious position".

The GP, from Inverness, said the public is unaware how serious the situation is with doctors' surgeries collapsing and a "dwindling" pool of practitioners.

Dr. Kennedy said his own group of four GP practices has lost medics to South Africa and New Zealand, with more on the verge of retirement, but can't find replacements.