Financial barriers to a career in medicine are growing

The financial barriers to a career in medicine are growing, the BMA says today (Friday 7 January 2005), as new figures show the average fifth year medical student is in debt by £19,248 - 16% higher than last year - and many owe more than £30,000.

Almost all (98.3%) of the 1314 UK medical students who completed the BMA's annual student finance survey were in debt. Average debt for students from all years was £13,301 - up 18% from last year - and the largest amount owed was £56,000 - up 15%. This is the first year that all the students surveyed began their course after tuition fees were introduced and grants were scrapped in England, largely accounting for such sharp increases.

The BMA says the figures provide evidence of the threat of medicine becoming an elitist profession. Only one in twelve (8%) of the students surveyed came from a "blue collar" background; compared to 62% who came from a family where the main source of income was from a managerial or professional occupation.

Despite the domination of medicine by the highest social classes an independent inquiry into access to the professions "in a variable fees environment" has said it will not consider the effect of top-up fees on entry to medical school. The BMA is calling on inquiry leader Sir Alan Langlands to include medicine.

Leigh Bissett, chair of the BMA's Medical Students Committee, says: "This is further evidence of the huge financial problems facing medical students, particularly those from low income families. There is clearly a major problem, and with the introduction of top-up fees it is set to become even worse. If the government is serious about opening up medical careers to students from all backgrounds, it needs to tackle the financial disincentives to studying medicine. If we fail to take the problem seriously we will deny many talented students fair access to careers in the NHS, and deny patients the chance to benefit from their skills."

The BMA survey results also highlight the problems faced by students studying medicine as a second degree. Most graduate students still had an outstanding student loan from their first degree, and those in their first year as medical students already owed on average £8,781 in student loans alone.

Changes to NHS working patterns mean first year junior doctors generally earn less than they did a few years ago. Recent research by the BMA showed that while medical students are graduating with increasingly large debts, the amount they can expect to earn from their first job has gone down.

More results from the survey:

• The overwhelming majority (94%) of students surveyed had a student loan
• Two thirds (65%) had an overdraft
• The average size of overdraft was £1462
• A third of 5th and 6th year medical students had a bank loan

Medicine is one of the most expensive degree courses because it is longer and more intensive than other subjects. Students have little opportunity to work part-time or during holidays and are required to fund transport to hospitals, which costs on average £49 a month, and pay for equipment such as stethoscopes.