The BMA has welcomed new laws prioritising access to training for UK medical graduates, while urging the Government to take further steps towards addressing the jobs crisis.
The Medical Training (Prioritisation) Act, which will see graduates from UK, Irish and European Economic Area medical schools be given priority for specialty training roles, has today passed into law after receiving Royal Assent.
In endorsing the arrival of the new law, the BMA further warned that its provisions were just part of the solution to the chronic shortage of jobs and called for an urgent expansion of the total number of training places.
Speaking today, BMA resident doctors committee chair Jack Fletcher said he welcomed the new legal requirement for prioritisation, a measure he said would begin the process of tackling years of poor planning and under provision of training places.
FLETCHER: 'We need to see reductions in doctors unable to find work this year'
He said: ‘This act marks an important step toward fixing the jobs crisis for doctors. The legislation recognises, at last, the scale of the bottlenecks that have left too many UK-trained doctors struggling to find posts despite years of public investment in their education and training.
‘It is also positive for medical students, too many of whom have been offered only placeholder positions when starting their first year as a doctor, not knowing their location until the last minute. This legislation will at least reduce this regrettable practice.'
Job security
Inadequate workforce planning by successive governments has, in recent years, seen significant numbers of new doctors face uncertainty with jobs and even unemployment, owing to a shortage of training places.
The extent of the crisis was highlighted by reporting in The Doctor magazine,which revealed that 2024 saw 59,698 applications for just 12,743 specialty training posts, with the number of applications having seen a 39.5 per cent increase compared with 2023.
Latest figures on competition ratios show that this situation has only worsened, with 91,999 applications submitted to just 12,833 available posts, a 54 per cent increase on 2024.
The crisis saw members of the RDC and MSC back calls at their 2025 conferences urging the BMA to lobby the Government on the issue of prioritisation as part of broader efforts to increase the number of training places.
The passing of the bill has also been welcomed by the BMA’s medical students committee, which has said that it hopes the new law will end the spectacle of placeholder offers for UK graduates attempting to access the foundation programme.
Last minute decisions
In recent years, a shortage of places on the programme has resulted in many new doctors not getting confirmation of their foundation school allocations until the eleventh hour, at locations not of first choice or in areas hundreds of miles from their homes.
While the Government has said that the new law will not guarantee the elimination of placeholder offers during this year’s round of applications, it remains confident that the number will be greatly reduced compared with previous years.
Under the new law, medical graduates from medical schools in the UK, Republic of Ireland, Norway, Iceland, Switzerland and Liechtenstein will all be eligible for prioritisation when applying for foundation programme and specialty training posts.
Prioritisation for specialty training will also be granted to IMG (international medical graduate) doctors already based in the UK who have completed their core or foundation training and who possess indefinite leave to remain, EU settled status or are British nationals.
Acknowledging that a UK graduate prioritisation policy had been a longstanding source of concern among many IMG doctors, Dr Fletcher emphasised that the BMA would continue to press the Government to do more to support these vitally important overseas medical staff.
International element
He said: ‘While there are some protections in this Act for internationally trained doctors already working the NHS, we must redouble our efforts to improve their working lives, which at present are all too often unstable and poorly rewarded.
‘The contracts of locally employed doctors must be brought in to line with the protections of those on permanent contracts, assuring them of stability and career progression.'
The new law will take effect in time for applications for this year's specialty training and foundation programme, with prioritisation for the latter applied at point of allocation to the foundation school.
With shortlisting for applications to this year’s specialty training posts already under way, prioritisation will be applied at offer stage for 2026, with training posts commencing from 2027 to see prioritisation from both shortlisting and offer stage.