Anger of the junior doctors left jobless

Pressure was mounting on Health Secretary Patricia Hewitt today to ditch a new job application process for junior doctors.

Britain is said to be in danger of losing some of its most talented doctors, who cost at least £250,000 to train.

More than 30,000 are applying for 16,000 consultant training poosts. Doctors not chosen face slower or static career progression.

The dramatic difference has been caused by a decision to reduce the time for full post-graduate training for consultants from 14 to 11 years, as well as a major expansion in medical school places almost a decade ago.

Ministers have said the first round of the system will be reviewed immediately but the process will not be stopped.

Today, junior doctors told the Evening Standard of their fears for the future and a renewed brain drain.

Dr Paul Bhogal, 26, said he was considering retraining as a lawyer and he knew of dozens of colleagues in a similar position. He said: "We are all hardworking, very dedicated people but some are crying; suffering from depression.

"I was with 20 friends on Saturday and every one was thinking about quitting medicine or leaving the country.

"We are not complaining about the money because we are well-paid. All we want is to have a say in our future."

Another doctor, Robert Thomas, 29, said he had already been offered a job in Sydney. He said: "I have the best job in the world as a doctor. I absolutely adore it and I am happy to commit to the NHS but I have to pay my mortgage. It's the taxpayers who funded my education and it is they who will suffer."

The new centralised system replaces a regional one. Doctors across the country must apply and be interviewed at the same time. Medical leaders have argued that a new computer system and hastily introduced deadlines are leading to experience and qualifications being overlooked.

In the West Midlands surgeons boycotted the process completely, prompting calls for a similar move nationwide.

The British Medical Association has written to Mrs Hewitt warning that the system must be halted. It said: "Patients and doctors alike must be able to have confidence that the doctors selected to become consultants have been chosen because of their own excellence rather than as the result of a capricious and unfair system."