Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will make an estimate of the number of qualified medical professionals unable to progress in their training pathways in the most recent period for which figures are available.

We are committed to training the staff we need to ensure patients are cared for by the right professional, when and where they need it. It is not possible, from the data held, to consistently and accurately identify unique applicants, as many applicants will apply to more than one specialty training pathway

We will ensure that the number of medical specialty training places meets the demands of the National Health Service in the future. NHS England will work with stakeholders to ensure that any growth is sustainable and focused in the service areas where need is greatest.

Post graduate medical training consists of several different phases of training courses, depending on the speciality choices a doctor makes. After graduating, doctors will typically do a two year foundation programme, followed by speciality training. Speciality training can be a single “run through” programme or can be core training followed by competitive entry into higher speciality training. Further information is available at the following link:

https://www.healthcareers.nhs.uk/explore-roles/doctors/training-doctor

In 2024, there were 59,698 total applications across all medical specialty training pathways in the United Kingdom, for the 12,743 speciality training posts that were available. This data covers all round one and round two specialty training pathway programmes. The Department does not hold information on the number of individual, or unique, applicants that this comprises of in order to make and estimate on the specific progression of medical professionals. The timing of progression, from foundation years training to medical specialty training, will depend on a wide variety of factors, including personal preferences for future specialty training programmes, development of current strengths and skills, personal factors influencing the timing of progression, and the NHS’s demand for specialty training roles.

Once medical professionals have entered a training pathway, progress outcomes within that pathway are collected and reported by the General Medical Council in its Annual Review of Competency Progression reports. This information is available at the following link:

https://edt.gmc-uk.org/progression-reports/arcp