Doctors do not have adequate access to affordable childcare

Six in ten doctors responding to a BMA News poll published today do not or did not have adequate access to affordable childcare - forcing many to put their careers on hold.

The BMA News Doctors Decide poll also found that four in ten doctors felt access to childcare provision had an effect on their career progression and 40 per cent said 24-hour childcare would be the answer to current childcare problems.

Today's poll results follow warnings from the BMA that childcare is no longer an issue that can be pushed to the margins of the health service.

The BMA is warning that doctors are being forced out of healthcare because of the lack of adequate provision and are demanding a rethink of NHS childcare because of its key role in recruitment and retention.

London specialist registrar in anaesthesia Simon Minkoff says: 'In a time of 24-hour healthcare it is amazing that the NHS still only provides limited places and limited hours at its nurseries and creches.'