1 week Ago
When the email of congratulations arrived in her inbox last month, Emma could not have been any more excited. Inside was meant to be the details of her first job as a junior doctor. On the brink of graduation from Warwick Medical School, the 29-year-old was due to find out about where she would working for the next two years.
But despite the email being titled congratulations, next to each of her placements for her two-year foundation course, the first rung on the doctor training ladder, was the abbreviation TBC. She had been given what is called a placeholder job. "I've been told I will have a job, but that they don't know where yet and it could take until three weeks before I am due to start in August for me to find out.
All I know is it will be somewhere in the West Midlands South region. "It is incredibly unsettling. It makes you feel unvalued and an inconvenience.
The NHS is short of doctors and yet they cannot find me a job. "I am renting at the moment, but depending on where I am placed I may have to give notice to my landlord and move." Emma was one of more than 1,000 medical students in this position when the emails initially went out.
That was nearly one in nine of those who have applied to start junior doctor training this summer. Since then the numbers have dropped to 800 as NHS trusts have created new roles and some students have already decided not to take up their place. Part of the problem is that there has been an increase in medical students this summer to s.
