Doctors are predicting that the National Health Service (NHS) will no longer be free in ten years' time, despite assurances from politicians that there are no current plans to charge at the point of use.
A survey of 964 young doctors by the British Medical Association (BMA) found that the majority of GPs and hospital medics believed that the NHS will be "unrecognisable" in a decade.
Nearly half of those polled claimed to be worried that job insecurity would force them to find work outside the NHS by 2017, with 61 per cent very concerned about the fragmentation of the health service.
Published at the BMA Junior Members Forum in Dundee, the research highlighted concerns among younger doctors about the increased role of the private sector in the NHS, with 94 per cent expecting it to continue growing.
Just 15 per cent of respondents believed that a bigger role for the private sector would benefit patients, with 46 per cent predicting that at least half of all NHS care services will be delivered by private providers in ten years' time.
Dr Andrew Thomson, a GP from Forfar in Scotland, said: "Doctors fear that current reforms are damaging the NHS beyond repair. We seem to be selling off the service to the highest bidder without considering the legacy for future generations of patients."
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