ONLY one in 10 newly qualified GPs secured a partnership post last year, according to a new BMA study.
Just nine of the 91 new GPs taking part in the BMA’s cohort study of medical graduates were in a partnership post as of August 2011, when they had received their certificate of completion of training (CCT).
The BMA has been following a group of 431 trainees since they graduated from medical school in 2006.
Most GPs in the cohort were working as a salaried GP (34 per cent) or a locum (22 per cent) after qualifying. However, two-thirds (66 per cent) of the cohort doctors working in general practice wanted ultimately to work as a GP principal.
Ten per cent of the cohort in their third and final year of GP training said that it had been difficult or very difficult to secure a post after qualifying while a quarter had yet to find a job at the time of the survey and a further fifth said getting a job had been very easy.
Just under half (42 per cent) agreed that GP training should be extended beyond three years, in line with the RCGP’s plans for a four year programme.
The doctors who completed GP training last August were largely satisfied with the way the training programme had prepared them for their CCT and for qualified practice.
Other findings of the study include that a quarter of all cohort doctors did not expect to stay in their current specialty for the rest of their career. This view was most common amongst doctors in hospital practice.
A large number of cohort doctors also plan to leave the UK, with two-thirds intending to practise outside the UK either temporarily or permanently.
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