Writing off medical students’ loans could improve NHS retention, says think tank

The government should consider gradually writing off medical students’ loans in return for years of service or freezing loan repayments until later in their careers to try to keep more doctors in the NHS, a healthcare think tank has said.

A report by the Nuffield Trust has highlighted the scale of losses caused by healthcare staff quitting the NHS during training and early in their careers, putting the service under severe strain and costing the taxpayer large sums of money.1

Some form of “loans forgiveness” scheme—similar to those in countries such as Canada2—should be immediately rolled out for nurses, midwives, and allied health professionals, it advised, and should be considered for doctors alongside other options such as deferring loan repayments to give junior doctors more money in their pocket early in their career.