| Topic: | Re:Question for the Council | |
| Posted by: | Jeremy Parkinson | |
| Date/Time: | 18/04/24 16:30:00 |
| I'm not sure that the figure of £250,000 comes from. I've spoken to a number of recently qualified doctors some of whom have taken further degrees and their student debt isn't that high although it is still eye-watering. If you get the grades to go to medical school, you will get your course fees and some maintenance covered by a loan if you are on a low income so I don't think that this is a barrier to people becoming doctors. The Hounslow Council taxpayer may provide extra funding for people to qualify but there could be no guarantee that they would go on to become GPs in Brentford. As has been mentioned, the main problem is retention. My view is that the best way to get round this problem with minimal impact on the public purse would be to say that no student loan payments should be deducted from earnings by doctors working in the NHS and no interest should be charged on the balance of their loan. This mean an instant payrise for all NHS doctors and an effective forgiveness of the loan if they stay with the service for their entire working life. The net cost would be minimal because remember they would make no student loan payments anyway if they went overseas. Even if this solution was adopted I think we would still have a problem getting GPs due to the high cost of housing and the demands of an urban practice. |