Data on the medical workforce from training to retirement

Foundation to internal medicine training

For the foundation programme exit survey there was an 87% response rate among foundation year 2 doctors (F2s) who finished in August 2018.[1] Reasons for not entering a training post included: entering a service appointment (18%) and taking a career break (14%).[2]

There was a 77.5% round 1 fill rate for the 1,333 internal medicine training posts offered in August 2019.[3] This was worse than for every other specialty, except paediatrics.
 

Internal medicine training to physicianly higher specialty training

A total of 1,530 doctors started core medical training and acute medicine (acute care common stem) training in 2017.[4]

Of those doctors, 1,030 started physicianly higher specialty training in 2019.[4]
 

Physicianly higher specialty training doctor to substantive (long-term) consultant post

In the RCP census of doctors who achieved their certificate of completion of training (CCT) in 2017, 78% of those that had worked less than full time (LTFT) at some point got a substantive post, while 69% of those who worked full time throughout got a substantive post.[5]

In the 2018 consultant census 43% of advertised consultant posts with an Advisory Appointments Committee (AAC) went unfilled due to a lack of suitable applicants.
 

Consultant physicians to retirement

The RCP 2018–19 census states that there are 16,406 consultant physicians in the UK in 2018–19,7 and it is expected that 25% of the current consultant workforce will reach 65 years of age in the next 10 years (43% will reach 60).[6]

There are approximately 40,000 doctors under the age of 65 registered with the General Medical Council (GMC), who have not applied for a licence to practise.[7]

References

1. General Medical Council. Training pathways: analysis of the transition from the foundation programme to the next stage of training. London: GMC, 2017. https://www.gmc-uk.org/education/reports-and-reviews/training-pathways (Accessed 19 December 2019).
2. Foundation Programme. F2 Career Destinations Report 2018. Available at: https://foundationprogramme.nhs.uk/resources/reports/
3. Health Education England. Specialty recruitment: round 1 – acceptance and fill rate. HEE: London, 2019. www.hee.nhs.uk/printpdf/our-work/medical-recruitment/specialty-recruitment-round-1-acceptance-fill-rate 
4. Royal College of Physicians. PSRO co-ordinated recruitment. State of recruitment report. Version 0.7. 04/07/19
5. Royal College of Physicians. Medical CCT class of 2017. 2018 survey results. London: RCP, 2018. www.rcplondon.ac.uk/projects/outputs/2018-survey-medical-certificate-completion-training-cct-holders-career-progression (Accessed 20 December 2019).
6. Royal College of Physicians. Focus on physicians. Census of consultant physicians and higher specialty trainees 2018. London: RCP, 2019. www.rcplondon.ac.uk/projects/outputs/focus-physicians-2018-19-census-uk-consultants-and-higher-specialty-trainees (Accessed 19 December 2019).
7. General Medical Council. Key stats on the medical register. https://www.gmc-uk.org/about/what-we-do-and-why/data-and-research/medical-practice-statistics-and-reports (Accessed 20 December 2019).