Medical students are calling on the government for more financial support, with some working several part-time jobs, building up debt and selling belongings to cover their studies.
Martyna Maria Jackiewicz, from Brighton, East Sussex, had to sell her home and acquired £30,000 of credit card debt to fund her medical degree, which she started at the age of 31.
“It has impacted me terribly – I’ve lost five years of my life,” said Ms Jackiewicz.
The Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) said: “We are committed to supporting people from all backgrounds to become doctors, and in this academic year have provided an uplift of 2% to NHS bursary maintenance grants and allowances.”
It added while this was a “move in the right direction”, further work was needed to make up for a “historic lack of uplift”.
In their fifth year of studying, undergraduate medical students receive a reduced rate loan to cover their maintenance costs and can apply for a bursary.
This leaves many students with an average reduction of £2,766 in funding.
‘I had to live in a van’
Tommy Collings, a medical student at the University of Manchester, said he had “a colourful array of part-time jobs” but it was difficult to sustain these in the final year “when you are on placement and have less free time, so having a reduction in finances in this year just compounds the difficulties”.
“I have had to sell some of my belongings to get by. For a time, I even lived in a van outside the university as I couldn’t afford to live in rented accommodation,” he said.
A survey conducted by the British Medical Association (BMA) found that out of more than 3,500 medical students, 43% had considered leaving or pausing their course due to financial pressures.
Martyna wanted to become a doctor at the age of 11 when her father died of a heart attack and there was no-one nearby to help him.
She said: “I know I’ll be a good doctor, I’ll be able to help people. But when I think of the price I’ve paid mentally and financially I have to ask myself, is it worth it?”
Henry Budden, co-lead for the BMA student finance campaign, said: “At a time when we know there’s a workforce crisis within the NHS, we should prioritise making sure that we can recruit doctors from a broad range of backgrounds.”
He said medical students should “not have to worry about funding throughout their years of study and can enter the workforce in a strong, financially viable position”.
The DHSC said it would keep funding arrangements for medical students under close review. [BBC]
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