Pregnant junior doctors could cause staff shortage

24 May 2010

HOSPITALS must prepare for staff shortages as many junior doctors become pregnant after getting their first secure job.

The BMA Junior Doctors’ Committee has said the Government must make suitable long term plans to cope with increasing numbers of female trainees. Latest figures reveal 56 per cent of successful applicants to medical school were female with women expected to form the majority of doctors by 2017.

There are fears staffing levels could be affected if a number of female doctors take maternity leave at the same time while others may work part-time. Suggestions made at the annual junior doctors’ conference in London include taking on more trainee doctors and pooling jobs.

Speaking at the conference, mother-of-two Eleanor Draeger, 35, a specialist registrar at St Bartholomew's Hospital, in London said women were more likely to consider pregnancy once they had a secure four-year specialist training post, at least seven years after starting medical school.

She said: “When I was pregnant the first time, out of the 11 trainees on my rotation, four were pregnant at the same time. My consultant was surprised and I said 'how can you be? You have appointed seven women in their early 30s to a four-year guaranteed job with maternity benefits. Of course some are likely to think it is a good time to get pregnant'."

Dr Tom Dolphin, deputy chairman of the JDC, agreed with the calls for better planning, describing pregnancy as "entirely predictable at a population level".