Shortage of staff for UK specialties in medicine

I wanted to gain some insight into what type of specialties in medicine in the UK are short of staff. Could you please advise and possibly refer to any possible websites I could read so I can gain a better understanding.

There's a shortage of doctors in general but the three specialties which are most often described as being particularly short are GP, psychiatry and A&E. A longer list is available here (page 3):

https://www.bma.org.uk/media/1667/bma-consultation-response-shortage-occupational-list-jan-2019.pdf

I wanted to gain some insight into what type of specialties in medicine in the UK are short of staff. Could you please advise and possibly refer to any possible websites I could read so I can gain a better understanding.

There's shortage in virtually every speciality, the BMA's list is not comprehensive. For example, the Royal College of Radiologists says the current vacancy rate for clinical oncologists is 10%, with that increasing to 19% if you factor in overtime hours currently being worked by burnt out staff. That is current - the forecast is for a massive surge in cancer treatment demand over the next decade, with treatments getting better and more complex and therefore higher workload!

https://www.rcr.ac.uk/system/files/publication/field_publication_files/clinical-oncology-uk-workforce-census-2019-key-findings.pdf

https://www.rcr.ac.uk/posts/new-rcr-figures-show-uks-clinical-oncologist-numbers-have-stalled


In addition, some deficiencies are being masked by the use of non-doctor staff in positions that used to be doctors (like specialist nurses, pharmacists, physician associates). That is true in virtually every speciality. It is sometimes a good thing, but often done out of desperation if we're honest and not an ideal thing at all.

Amazing, thank you!

Can I ask what prompted you to look into oncology doctors? Is it an area of your interest or was it the first speciality that came to mind and looked up.

I noticed, mainly because when I was applying, the RCR released this saying they needed to recruit 138 per year. This would be good for me - more chance of getting in. The number of jobs they actually released that year... 35. I was pretty angry

Its a similar story for virtually all specialities though. I know neurology is incredibly short, for instance. And of course this is all pre-covid, both in terms of the huge backlog created and all the extra precautions slowing everything down massively with no respite in sight.

I am secretly quite happy there are empty vacancies ; )

Perhaps you misunderstand? The RCR said there should be 138 training jobs. They only released 35, so competition was a lot higher.