Half of doctors who graduate in Wales leave to practise somewhere else, a new study has revealed. The 2022 workforce report by the General Medical Council (GMC) found that most UK medical students remain in the nation where they graduated with the exception of Wales where 46% relocate to England due to greater availability of foundation posts.
Meanwhile an additional 4% move from Wales to Scotland, Northern Ireland, or abroad to work upon graduation. And while England retained more than 92% of newly-qualified GPs and specialists after four years 77% of those who qualified in Wales stayed here.
The report found that between 2017 and 2021 the only UK nation that had an overall increase in the number of doctors leaving the workforce was Wales (3%) – it fell between 5% and 13% in other parts of the UK. Doctors also had to look after more patients in Wales than in England and Scotland according to the report – for every doctor in Wales there were 271.4 patients compared to 242.9 in both England and Scotland.
