The Department of Health has announced the figures showing how many junior doctor posts in England have been filled following the first round of MTAS. But it fails to spell out how many doctors may still be facing unemployment.

According to the Department, there were 29,193 applicants for junior doctor training posts in England and of these, 27,849 were eligible to apply for one of the 15,600 vacancies within MTAS. But 25,000 applicants were already working in the NHS.

A total of 15,554 training posts had been made available in round one, 11,816 of them run through training posts and 3,559 fixed term appointments. A further 179 academic posts were also available.

A total of 13,168 training posts had been accepted at the end of round one. Of these, 10,804 are run through (RT) posts and 2,262 of them are one year fixed term specialty training appointment (FTSTA) posts. It leaves 2,320 unfilled posts for applicants in round two. In addition, a further 1000 one-year training posts will be made available to those doctors unable to secure a post at the end of round two, which will end on 31 October.

The figures published so far do not make it clear how many of those who applied were in staff and associate specialist posts, how many were existing SHOs and how many of them juniors. So it is not possible to work out how many doctors currently working in the NHS are facing potential unemployment.

Those in SAS posts will not be unemployed if they fail to secure a post under the current process, but doctors coming out of foundation training or those currently in SHO grades could find themselves jobless. Nor is it clear how many of the eligible applicants were overseas applicants. The figures would indicate that as many as 14,249 eligible applicants had graduated overseas. However, many of these may have been working in the NHS already, often for many years. It is unclear how many medical graduates may have been trying to apply from outside the UK.

Of the 13,600 UK graduates who applied, 9,336 (almost 70 per cent) have accepted a post at the end of Round One.

Health Minister Ann Keen said: “The high fill-rate is good news for patients, the NHS and deaneries across the country and has been achieved despite this year’s problems with implementing the national recruitment programme.
“We are working hard with the NHS on this second round of recruitment, and on the development of a package of support for those appointable applicants who have yet to find a post.”

The Department has announced a package of support for those appointable junior doctors who have not found the right posts following Round Two. It includes:
– some 1,000 extra one-year and GP training posts;
– access to career information about future training options via local Deaneries. (Applicants who are already in NHS Employment will also be able to access career support from their employer.)
– a careers website for junior doctors to support their decision making when looking at future careers
– educational grants allowing appointable but unsuccessful applications who are in service posts to pursue their clinical education and improve their chances of successfully applying for specialty training next year.

The following summary of the statistics has been published by the DH and a full breakdown of the details is due to be posted on the Modernising Medical Careers website:

England Summary of Round 1 Acceptances
Excluding Defence Medical Services

Acceptances data correct as of Round One close on 26 June

All Round 1 Posts:
All 15,554
RT 11,816
FTSTA 3,559
Academic 179

Applicants:
All 29,193
Eligible 27,849

All Acceptances
All 13,168
RT 10,804
FTSTA 2,262
Academic 102

Fill Rate
All 85%
RT 91%
FTSTA 64%
Academic 57%

Round 1 fill-rate by specialty (Royal College groupings)
Royal College Fill rate (percentage of posts filled at close of Round One

Anaesthetists 75%
Anaesthetists/Physicians 76%
Emergency Medicine 82%
General Practitioners 98%
Obstetricians and Gynaecologists 74%
Ophthalmologists 81%
Paediatrics and Child Health 83%
Pathologists 91%
Physicians 85%
Physicians/Pathologists 92%
Psychiatrists 82%
Radiologists 99%
Surgeons 79%

Round fill-rate by Unit of Application (Deanery)
Unit of Application Fill-rate (percentage of posts filled at close of Round One)

Eastern 84%
Leicestershire, Northamptonshire and Rutland 80%
London/KSS 89%
Mersey 91%
North Western 92%
Northern 77%
Oxford 77%
Severn 88%
South Yorkshire & South Humber 74%
Southwest Peninsula 74%
Trent 64%
Wessex 83%
West Midlands 77%
Yorkshire 94%