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."