INSUFFICIENT government funding for medical students is plunging budding doctors into financial hardship, the BMA warned today.

The union published a survey of over 3,500 medical students and found that 43 per cent had considered leaving or pausing their course due to financial pressures.

More than two-fifths had used an overdraft to cover living costs, while one in 10 turned to credit cards or loans to make ends meet, the survey found.

Nearly three-quarters had to ask their family for additional support, highlighting concerns that funding gaps pose a serious barrier to participation by people from all backgrounds.

The BMA said the situation was particularly hard for undergraduate students from their fifth year and post-graduate students from their second year, as this is when they transition from full student finance to NHS bursary funding.

The union warned that students are then left £3,647 worse off on average.

Tommy Collings, a fourth-year foundation entry student at the University of Manchester, said: “I have three jobs and I have had to sell some of my belongings to get by.

“For a time, I even lived in a van outside the university as I couldn’t afford to live in rented accommodation. The spiral of debt is such a reality. 

“By hook or by crook, I will finish this course, but it has meant that I have had to really seriously adjust other parts of my life and has made it much more difficult for me to study medicine.”

The BMA is calling on the government to grant students full maintenance funding for their entire course, pointing out that it would cost the Treasury £24 million, which equated to just 0.12 per cent of annual lending for student finance.