Surgery: Training
The question
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department is taking to improve the working conditions for trainee surgeons.
Answered by Karin Smyth
We are committed to ensuring that doctors trained in the United Kingdom remain within the National Health Service through a structured, data-driven approach to workforce retention, and to improving the working conditions of all resident doctors, including trainee surgeons.
NHS England’s Enhancing Resident Doctors Working Lives programme continues to implement several measures aimed at supporting resident doctors, encouraging them to stay in training and the NHS, and reducing overall attrition. In addition, the NHS National Retention Programme is actively improving working conditions for trainee surgeons by enhancing workplace culture, promoting flexible training, and reducing burnout and attrition.
On 18 February 2025, the Chief Medical Officer and the National Medical Director of NHS England jointly launched a review of postgraduate medical training. The review will cover placement options, the flexibility of training, difficulties with rotas, control and autonomy in training, and the balance between developing specialist knowledge and gaining a broad range of skills.
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