Debt levels and the length of medical degrees continue to discourage less-privileged students from choosing medicine studies at university, doctors have claimed.
Medical students are currently racking up almost £15,000 debts by the time they graduate, the icWales website reports. But the introduction of new top-up fees could see the average student debt soar to £64,000 - a major disincentive to encouraging people from poorer backgrounds opting for a career in medicine.
Student representatives and doctors have warned that the profession risks becoming alienated from the very patients and communities it serves.
Jo Hilborne, deputy chair of the UK's junior doctors' committee and a specialist registrar in obstetrics and gynaecology in Swansea, said: "It is a huge concern that people will choose not to go to medical school because of the worry they will end up with high levels of debt.
"It is recognised that people who are, in general, poor are paid weekly cash-in-hand, and live hand-to-mouth have a greater fear of debt than the well off who are used to putting things on credit cards.
"The changes in funding for medical schools mean students have to pay four or five years' of tuition fees plus maintenance - that level of debt will be sufficient for many to say that they won't go into medicine, they will do a three-year degree with less time actually spent working during the week.
About 70 per cent of medical students in the UK come from managerial or professional families, while just 40 per cent come from the same socioeconomic groups which are represented by the general student population. |
