Doctors: Training
(asked on 14th May 2025) - View Source
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government how many medical graduates did not continue training by taking a speciality as a resident doctor in (1) 2023–24, and (2) 2024–25.
Medical graduates initially complete a two-year foundation programme after their graduation. It is common for doctors not to progress from the completion of the second year of their foundation programme directly into specialty training. The following table shows the proportion of doctors in year two of their foundation programme who had not progressed into medical specialty training programmes within each 12-month period of the end of their foundation training, in each of the last 10 years:
Foundation second year | Years since the second year of foundation | ||||
One | Two | Three | Four | Five | |
2014 | 42.6% | 20.8% | 12.5% | 9.9% | 8.6% |
2015 | 49.1% | 24.4% | 14.1% | 10.2% | 9.0% |
2016 | 54.2% | 28.9% | 16.3% | 11.6% | 10.1% |
2017 | 59.3% | 29.8% | 16.4% | 11.4% | 9.7% |
2018 | 62.5% | 33.1% | 17.4% | 11.8% | 10.3% |
2019 | 66.4% | 36.5% | 19.6% | 12.7% | 10.6% |
2020 | 69.3% | 40.5% | 22.6% | 14.3% | |
2021 | 70.4% | 43.7% | 25.3% | ||
2022 | 75.1% | 47.7% | |||
2023 | 77.6% | ||||
Source: General Medical Council, Education Data Tool Progression Reports, available on the General Medical Council’s website, in an online only format.