BMA calls for action on overfilled medical student foundation programme

The British Medical Association (BMA) has called for action to be taken to address the problems that have arisen with the oversubscribed medical student foundation programme.

More than 200 medical students still do not have a place on the programme, despite being on the waiting list since January, and were not chosen when the first batch of places on the programme were allocated to graduates last week.

This means the programme has now been oversubscribed for five years running, with data from the UK Foundation Programme Office showing there were 399 more eligible applicants than places for the 2015 intake.

It is expected that 213 medical students still on the reserve list will not know if they have a place until June 30th.

BMA medical student committee co-chair Charlie Bell said: "It is not acceptable to play with students' lives like this and the government must make a firm commitment to stopping this situation occurring again."

The foundation programme is a two-year work-based training scheme designed to bridge the gap between medical school and specialty/GP training.