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Teenagers in Wales are being deterred from careers in medicine due to rising levels of student debt, doctors have warned.
The introduction of top-up fees means that students starting medical school today will leave with average debts of £37,000 compared to £21,000 for those that have recently graduated.
Although the Welsh Assembly Government has decided to continue offering first-year junior doctors free hospital accommodation in Wales until July 2009, those training on the other side of Offa’s Dyke will be forced to pay up to £5,000 a year to live on-site, making the option of medicine more unattractive to people from deprived areas.
Ian Noble, chairman of the BMA’s medical students committee, said: "Medical school must be available to those who have the ability. We must continue to strive to recruit excellent candidates – rich or poor."
"That way we can continue to produce excellent doctors and maintain an excellent health service and level of care for the people of the UK . It is they we will serve and it is in their best interests that medical schools recruit the best, not merely those who can afford it."
"Application must be based on ability, aptitude and potential, not on the wealth of the candidate," Mr Noble added.
The chairman’s comments reflect long-standing concerns that students from the most deprived parts of Wales are put off taking up medicine as a potential career choice because of the huge costs associated.
The BMA’s annual representatives’ meeting in Edinburgh yesterday heard how the Students Loan Companys use of the retail price index as its preferred inflation index means students are facing higher interest payments on their student loans .
As a result, interest on student loans has doubled from 2.4 per cent in 2006 to 4.8 per cent in 2007.
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