Member

The abolition of the RLMT and its replacement with a flat global entry to specialty training has led to an exponential increase in competition ratios and, if left unchecked, will directly drive unemployment of UK medical school graduates unable to emigrate from the UK. The figures show that the number of IMGs—international medical graduates—who are applying in the application cycles has risen in these years. In 2023, it was 10,402, but last year, it was 20,803. UK graduates have not gone up by the same amount; they have gone up from 9,273 to 12,305, the comparison being a 16% increase in UK graduates compared to a 40% increase for international medical graduates. UK graduates have remained relatively stable over the past decade. While there has been an increase in UK graduates as a result of increased medical school places over the past two years, that has been outstripped by exponential growth in the number of IMGs joining the workforce since medicine was added to the shortage occupation list in 2019.