Final year med students face delayed job offers

Thousands of final year medical students have been left in the dark regarding where they will begin work, after the UK Foundation Programme Office (UKFPO) decided to withhold the information.

The students have criticised the body, which is responsible for making job offers, claiming the last minute move compounded their anxiety further by not directly informing them there would be a delay.

Harrison Carter, co-chair of the medical students committee of the British Medical Association (BMA) said he was disappointed by the hold up, claiming that an estimated 7,000 final year medical students were now ‘anxious and concerned’ as to why they had not received their allocated placements.

In a letter to the UKFPO, he said: “I received a large amount of correspondence about this issue from final-year students who expressed dismay and frustration. At a time of extremely low morale and increasing disillusionment and disenfranchisement, this is a further blow to the future of our medical workforce.”

In a further update, the UKFPO declared: “The UKFPO regret to announce that there has been a slight delay to the release of the national allocation for the 2016 Foundation Programme. We are working on the issues identified in order to resolve the matter as soon as possible. The UKFPO will provide a further update at midday today.”

A spokeswoman for Health Education England (HEE), said: “Health Education England have been informed that during the final checking of offers an error was discovered. The UKFPO have therefore postponed the process until this error is fixed and we have asked that information is made available to applicants as soon as possible about when offers will be made. We apologise for this short delay but we are sure all will agree it is better to get this right first time.”