Increase in number of trainee psychiatrists

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The Foundation Programme Annual Report 2016 is good news for British psychiatry. The figures show that despite a drop in medical trainees completing their training, those who do go on to speciality training are increasingly choosing psychiatry. Of those who begun their training as a psychiatrist in 2016, 93.7% had put psychiatry as their first choice.

Retention rates of doctors have been steadily decreasing in recent years. There has been a 19% decrease in medical students continuing their studies to speciality training since 2011. 12% of trainees in 2016 left the UK to do their core speciality training in another country. It is vital, therefore, that those in the early stages of their medial careers are given the best support possible, and that more is done to improve morale.

The College's Psychiatric Trainees’ Committee holds a trainee led review into morale and training within psychiatry. A series of focus groups meet with junior doctors across the UK assessing psychiatrists’ morale. The review then considers how the lives of these trainees can be improved. Improving the training experience of our trainees is something the College is committed to, and we would like to see similar programmes rolled out in all medical professions across the UK.