Jeremy Hunt in climbdown over pledge to make newly-qualified doctors work for the NHS for four years

‘Jeremy Hunt has stepped back from a pledge to force graduate doctors to work for the NHS for four years. The policy was absent from a widescale announcement on the future of medical training published on Wednesday by the Department of Health, after practitioners warned it might ‘exacerbate’ the workforce crisis.
Last year the Health Secretary promised the Conservative Party Conference that all doctors whose graduate training was paid for by the NHS would have to work for the health service for at least four years.
But the Department of Health yesterday pledged merely to “continue exploring how best to achieve a return on taxpayer investment”, offering no date to revisit the four-year pledge.
The apparent climbdown comes after doctors’ groups vociferously opposed a mandatory four-year NHS tie.’
Read more: Jeremy Hunt in climbdown over pledge to make newly-qualified doctors work for the NHS for four years