Why newly qualified doctors are struggling to find jobs – and what's being done about it

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By Julie Penfold

As specialty recruitment opens for 2026, Doctors.net.uk examines the driving factors behind the current employment crisis for medical graduates and what meaningful action is being taken.

When competition ratios for specialty training posts were released last month, they were received with a mix of panic and outrage. Social media was alight with newly qualified doctors lamenting increasingly long odds for securing their futures in medicine.