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Doctor debt reaches £20,000
19/12/2005 12:10:00
Students of medicine are facing debts of more than £20,000 by the time they graduate, new research has revealed.
The British Medical Association (BMA) surveyed 1,877 medical students and found that fifth year students had an average debt of £20,172, while final year medics owed £22,635.
Over the course of the last year, the average debt has risen by 17.2 per cent and now equates to more than the average starting salary for a junior doctor.
Some 92 per cent were relying on student loans, three in five had an overdraft and one in five had a bank loan, the average amount of which was £8,580.
Increasing debt levels were attributed to the length of the course, the lack of time to take up temporary employment and the costs associated with the course, such as textbooks and travel.
Andrew Pearson, deputy chair of the BMA's medical students committee, commented: "The average sixth year medical student now owes more than the basic annual salary of a newly qualified doctor.
"This is particularly worrying when you consider that junior doctors' take-home pay is falling and that medical unemployment in Scotland could be a problem in the future. There is a lot of anxiety among medical students at the moment, and the financial pressures they are facing are making it worse."
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