Wednesday, July 09, 2008

Rising levels of student debt are pricing teenagers out of careers in medicine, doctors have warned.

Medical students are graduating with an average debt of £21,000, but those starting medical school today will leave with debts of £37,000 as a result of the introduction of top-up fees.

And despite the Welsh Assembly Government’s decision to continue offering first-year junior doctors free hospital accommodation in Wales until July 2009, those training on the other side of Offa’s Dyke will be forced to pay up to £5,000 a year to live on site, making medicine more unattractive to people from deprived areas.

Ian Noble, chairman of the BMA’s medical students committee, said: “Medical school must be available to those who have the ability. We must continue to strive to recruit excellent candidates – rich or poor.

“That way we can continue to produce excellent doctors and maintain an excellent health service and level of care for the people of the UK. It is they we will serve and it is in their best interests that medical schools recruit the best, not merely those who can afford it.

“Application must be based on ability, aptitude and potential, not on the wealth of the candidate.”

The comments reflect long-held concerns that students from the most deprived parts of Wales do not regard medicine as a potential career choice because of the huge costs associated.

The BMA’s annual representatives’ meeting in Edinburgh yesterday heard that all students are facing higher interest payments on their student loans, as the Students Loan Company is now using the retail price index as its preferred inflation index – interest has doubled from 2.4% in 2006 to 4.8% in 2007.

One student claimed this is equivalent to £50 a month in interest alone.

Source: http://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/wales-news/2008/07/09/