Thousands of doctors could face a “career black hole” because of a government shake-up of NHS training posts, the British Medical Association has warned. Under government plans to revamp the training process for doctors by scrapping senior house officer posts, about 21,000 junior doctors will be competing for 9,500 training posts in England next year. The BMA’s annual conference passed an emergency motion calling on the government to delay implementation of the plans. Doctors said junior medics will either be forced abroad or work in posts with no chance of career progression. Dr Jo Hilborne, chairman of the BMA’s junior doctors’ committee, said thousands of junior doctors were facing a “career black hole”. “We are incensed at the cavalier way this announcement was made, with no discussion with ourselves,” she said “This will dispose of the careers and aspirations of 11,500 junior doctors. There is a concern that there is an agenda in the short-term to push lots of these doctors into service posts.” But health minister Lord Warner said: “It’s absolute rubbish to say there will be thousands of junior doctors without jobs. “Some doctors may have to be flexible, but at the end of the day our changes mean that more doctors will go into specialties where there are shortages and more patients will be treated by trained doctors, meaning that patients benefit.”
