An RCGP survey of 424 GP ST3 registrars due to qualify this summer told the College they had not yet secured roles in UK general practice, Pulse reported.
The College estimates that 1,524 registrars have been recommended for CCT and qualification by 25 September.
In its survey, which closed on 8 August, 49% were still applying for or considering work as a UK GP. Some 149 participants looking for work reported struggling to find an appropriate role.
Registrars struggling to find a role reported applying for an average 13 roles each.
One participant told researchers: ‘This is a real source of stress and anxiety and is pushing me to consider leaving general practice in the UK altogether.’
Another said: ‘Training as a GP is regrettable considering the current circumstances of the job market.’
Of the 47% of participants who said they had secured a role as a UK GP, 41% called the process ‘moderately or very difficult’.
Dr Richard Fieldhouse, NASGP chair, said: “Qualifying as new GPs is the culmination of years of training designed to produce a high-quality, resilient clinical workforce that can manage undifferentiated disease in isolation, without supervision, all within a strict governance and assurance framework.
“What’s clear from this survey is that the state of general practice today is not what these new GPs committed themselves to over three years ago. And as a public service, the government needs to take responsibility for this current state of affairs.
“It’s also clear that the parts of England specifically mentioned in this report – the Midlands and northern England – are areas where regional ICBs have not taken up the offer to deploy NASGP’s own decentralised, real-time synchronous booking platform LocumDeck, that in areas where it has been deployed, newly-qualified GPs have been able to hit the ground running with locum work.
“Our advice to any newly-qualified GPs struggling to find work is to network with colleagues in a similar position, and all sign up now to LocumDeck to directly advertise their availability to local practices, impressing upon practices how easy it is for them to rely on local GP locums as a long term workforce solution.”