Today’s generation of junior doctors are more likely than older generations to train and work in the same region as their home, according to new research published in the Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine.
The study which investigated the geographical mobility of UK-trained doctors found that 36% had attended a medical school in their home region. 34% of hospital consultants and GP partners settled in the same region as their home before entering medical school.
“Compared with similar data we reported fifteen years ago, the relationships between location of career post and training post, career post and medial school and career post and original family home have strengthened in recent UK cohorts,” said Trevor Lambert, a statistician from Oxford University who led the research team.
The researchers believe the increasing percentage of doctors who stay local may reflect shorter periods of training such that doctors are less inclined to move to career posts afar from training posts.
They also warn that the reduced geographical mobility is not sustainable as doctors increasingly have to go where the jobs are.
