Box 1.

Selected quotations about reasons for considering leaving the UK.

Quote number	Quote	Sex, survey year, specialty and grade
1.	‘Keen to try living in another country’	Male, 2011, Core trainee
2.	‘To experience other healthcare systems and gain exposure to varied pathologies. To be able to travel while practicing medicine and maintaining an income’	Female, 2015, Paediatrics, grade unknown
3.	‘I have already worked in a rural Ugandan hospital and would be keen to work in resource-poor settings in the future or provide support/training’	Female, 2015, Paediatrics trainee
4.	‘Hoping to go on to missionary work in the future’	Female, 2011, Medical specialist trainee
5.	‘Interest in Tropical Medicine, would like to spend time working in the tropics. Would like to spend time working with MSF’	Female, 2011, Medical specialist trainee
6.	‘I am about to begin a commission as a medical officer in the British Army – this will see me practise both at home and overseas for the next 4 years at least’	Male, 2015, British Army, specialty unknown
7.	‘Better work–life balance and pay in Australia’	Female, 2011, Medical specialist trainee
8.	‘Weather is better abroad. Better income and living/working conditions’	Male, 2011, Psychiatry core trainee
9.	‘Foreseeable better future overseas – in terms of better lifestyle, salary’	Female, 2011, Anaesthetics trainee
10.	‘Excellent previous experience working abroad’	Female, 2015, Psychiatry core trainee
11.	‘Currently working in Australia. Very good work conditions, work–life balance and support/teaching/training in the work place very high quality’	Female, 2015, Emergency medicine, grade unknown
12.	‘Uncertainty about future job prospects and working environment within NHS’	Female, 2015, GP trainee
13.	‘The NHS may not be around for long and the downfall may be disastrous in the short term’	Male, 2015, Surgery trainee
14.	‘[named Minister for Health] and the contract reforms debacle’	Female, 2015, GP trainee
15.	‘The effects of politics on the NHS, e.g. [named Minister for Health]’s plans. Having a privatised healthcare system and work pressures might convince me out of the service even though it is my absolute vocation. It feels like continuing medicine in the UK will amount to sacrificing my human right to a personal and family life and my work would continue (albeit as much as I love it) at the expense of the people I love’	Female, 2015, Medical specialist trainee
16.	‘Further experience in my chosen specialty, plus jobs outwith my specialty that will broaden my skill and knowledge, useful for working in Emergency Medicine. Unable to do this in the current UK training scheme’	Male, 2011, Emergency medicine trainee
17.	‘Gain greater experience and time in post pre-Consultant’	Male, 2011, Medical specialist trainee
18.	‘To escape the inflexibility of our current job system and the inability to “try out” different specialties before having to make your lifelong decision’	Female, 2011, Obstetrics and gynaecology trainee
19.	‘Unhappy with training in UK, forced to choose a specialty too early. No flexibility to change mind’	Female, 2011, Anaesthetics trainee
20.	‘Don't want to train in UK, too difficult to get onto programme and will be sent all over the country and may struggle to get a post at the end too. I also want the lifestyle in Australia and ease of joining training scheme’	Female, 2011, Emergency medicine trainee
21.	‘Worsening job security in the UK. Disorganisation of the NHS. Move from training posts/job to pure “service provision”’	Female, 2011, Medical specialist trainee
22.	‘Increased working hours with reduced remuneration in medicine in the UK’	Male, 2015, Obstetrics and gynaecology trainee
23.	‘Poor working conditions in the UK. Long hours. Reductions in pay. Level of responsibility and stress associated with the job not worth the criticism and poor pay’	Female, 2015, GP trainee
24.	‘Family in Canada (born and raised there)’	Female, 2011, Obstetrics and gynaecology trainee
25.	‘Majority of our friends have gone abroad to work in Australia, so we plan to go out and join them next August’	Female, 2011, GP trainee
26.	‘My partner’s career may be improved by working abroad. If it is a convenient time in my career I would go with him’	Female, 2015, Obstetrics and gynaecology trainee
27.	‘Not feeling valued, low morale’	Male, 2015, Anaesthetics trainee
28.	‘There is growing hatred from the public and media for doctors, particularly GPs’	Female, 2015, GP trainee
29.	‘The costs of the medical rota on my health and family life’	Female, 2015, Medical specialist trainee
30.	‘Work is all-consuming here. You finish late, skip meals, are exhausted and treated poorly’	Female, 2015, GP trainee
31.	‘The current contract changes undermine our skills and threaten patient safety and I don't want to work in an institution that doesn't support its trainees. I already am overworked and it doesn't feel safe’	Female, 2015, Paediatrics trainee
32.	‘Poor NHS organisation – often leads to suboptimal patient outcomes that you then feel responsible for’	Male, 2015, Radiology trainee
33.	‘I have found working practices to be somewhat demoralising and I am tired of working in a system that is chronically and catastrophically under-funded. I do not wish to be a cog in a machine that perpetually delivers sub-standard care anymore’	Male, 2015, Emergency medicine trainee
34.	‘Hideous working conditions, hours, lack of senior support and work–life balance’	Female, 2011, Unknown
35.	‘Unsympathetic and distressing treatment regarding maternity leave. Sexism & harassment in work place’	Female, 2011, Pathology trainee
36.	‘Unclear if I definitely want to continue practising medicine, and would like to work abroad at some point’	Male, 2015, Emergency medicine trainee
37.	‘Working in Canada as a doctor is a potential life plan or leaving medicine because medicine doesn't interest me that much and being a doctor isn't what it used to be’	Female, 2015, Emergency medicine trainee

Quote number cross-refers to the ‘Results’ section.