Feb 27 2005
Doctors could leave the NHS in droves if controversial proposals to raise the retirement age go ahead.
Two-thirds of doctors polled by BMA News said they thought doctors would retire earlier than they had planned - the opposite effect intended by the government when it proposed that the pension age be raised to 65.
The reason given by many doctors is that the oldest and most experienced staff would want to get out of the health service before the changes come into effect for all staff in 2013.
One doctor told BMA News: 'A large proportion of consultants who are due to [retire] between 2013 and 2018 will look carefully at the figures, and a significant number of those will go earlier than expected. The consequences for medicine of a sudden exodus of experienced elders, given all the concerns about current training, are worrying.'
Doctors denounced the proposed changes as 'disgraceful and short-sighted', with more than three quarters opposed to the proposals to raise the pension age and for the final salary pension scheme to be scrapped in favour of one based on 'career average revalued earnings'.
http://www.bma.org.uk