Career prospects in general surgery in England and Wales.

The joint manpower initiative by the Department of Health and Social Security and the Joint Consultants Committee provides the latest and perhaps the most hopeful stimulus to solve the problems of medical manpower in the acute hospital services.' It has been recognised for some time that career prospects for junior doctors in the acute medical and surgical specialties have become intolerable.2 In general surgery the once orderly career structure has deteriorated, resulting in a surfeit of over trained and expensively trained "junior" surgeons unable to obtain career appointments. This paper emphasises the importance of the new proposals and should help intending surgeons to calculate their chances of future employment. We also hope that it will encourage both senior and junior members of the profession to respond to the requests made by the authors of the manpower initiative that opinions be offered soon in order that a final plan may be agreed in the near future.