Sir Keir Starmer’s pledge to cut hospital waiting lists is at risk unless more is done to retain doctors, as one in five consider leaving the UK to work abroad, the medical regulator has warned.
The General Medical Council (GMC) said 19 per cent of doctors are considering the move – with claims doctors are “treated better” in other countries given as the main reason.
Better pay was the second most common reason for plans to emigrate.
The news comes as the government faces ongoing strike action from resident doctors over its refusal to give in to their demands for a 29 per cent salary increase.
According to the GMC, 43 per cent of doctors surveyed said they had researched career opportunities in other countries, and 15 per cent had taken “hard steps” towards working outside the UK – such as applying for roles overseas or contacting recruiters.
Sir Keir has pledged that 92 per cent of patients will be seen within 18 weeks for routine hospital treatment such as hip and knee replacements by July 2029 – a vow the GMC said could now be under threat.
“We must be alive to the ongoing risks to retention of doctors and the impact of losing talented staff,” the authors of the GMC’s latest report warned.
“This could threaten government ambitions to reduce waiting times and deliver better care to patients.”
The newly agreed salary for doctors on foundation training in England is between £38,831 and £44,439, with specialist training salaries rising to £73,992. That includes the 5.4 per cent increase awarded earlier this year, but does not include London weighting.
The average salary for a general practitioner is £84,000, according to NHS data, while specialists such as radiotherapists can earn up to £350,000.
By comparison, resident doctors in the US are paid on average between £51,000 and £86,000, according to Glassdoor, but some surgeons can earn upwards of £500,000 a year. Average salaries for doctors in Canada sit around £122,000, with peak pay at £236,000.
In Australia, recruitment agency Medrecruit said resident medical officers, who are the equivalent of foundation year two doctors in the UK, earn between £31,748 to £46,402, while more senior doctors can earn between £58,400 and £77,800.
The GMC’s latest report, based on responses from 4,697 doctors, also raised concerns about career progression for medics in the UK.
Overall, one in three doctors said they are unable to progress their education, training and careers in the way they want.
It found that those who felt this way were at higher risk of burnout and were less satisfied with their work, while 8 per cent of doctors who felt they could not progress their career in the UK were likely to look for work overseas.
The BMA has already raised concerns with ministers over the number of resident doctors unable to get specialist training jobs, with 30,000 doctors applying for around 10,000 posts each year.
Charlie Massey, chief executive of the GMC, said: “Like any profession, doctors who are disillusioned with their careers will start looking elsewhere. Doctors need to be satisfied, supported, and see a hopeful future for themselves, or we may risk losing their talent and expertise altogether.
“Achieving this requires modernising the current training system, so it meets the needs of doctors and patients.”
It comes as health secretary Wes Streeting and the BMA remain locked in talks to avert further strike action.
Following a meeting on Wednesday, BMA resident doctors’ committee co-chairs, Dr Ross Nieuwoudt and Dr Melissa Ryan said “we feel that we have achieved a greater mutual understanding than in previous talks” and they had agreed on a window for further negotiations this month.
Commenting on the GMC report, Billy Palmer, senior fellow at the Nuffield Trust think tank, said the survey shone a spotlight on the wider difficulties facing the medical profession.
“Job guarantees, better rotas and placements, and protection of training time all need to be on the table.
“Addressing the burden of medical graduates’ student debt by gradually writing off loans could also be a promising way to reward doctors’ NHS service. With fewer than three in five doctors in ‘core training’ remaining in the NHS eight years later, unless warnings from this survey are dealt with, we’ll continue to lose these skilled clinicians.”
The Department of Health and Social Care has been approached for comment.
