Nadine Dorries made several claims about the cost of training doctors

21 Jul 2023 | Full Fact's weekly news
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FACT CHECK
It does not cost the public £500,000 to train a doctor

In an article in the Daily Mail, and a tweet sharing it the following day, the former health minister Nadine Dorries made several slightly different claims about the cost of training doctors.

Although the cost to public funds of training someone all the way to their qualification as a GP or a surgeon could get close to £500,000 (as Ms Dorries claimed in the Mail) the cost of training someone until they are a doctor (as she said in her tweet) is much less.
Full Fact also asked Ms Dorries for the source of her claim in the Mail that “almost half” of doctors, GPs or surgeons who trained in the UK later move to Australia or New Zealand, but we have not heard back.

We have not been able to find conclusive evidence on this point, but based on the evidence we have, it appears unlikely to be true.

Politicians must use accurate figures when talking about UK public services—and provide evidence to show this. Otherwise they risk misinforming voters about the state of the country, which can damage the democratic process.

What does it cost to train a doctor? ([link removed])
FACT CHECK


** Falling inflation figures do not necessarily mean a decline in checkout costs ([link removed])
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An article published by Sky News with the headline “Supermarket deals drive down cost of groceries for fourth month in a row” claimed that recently published data shows “the steepest decline in checkout costs during the four weeks to 9 July since grocery inflation peaked in March.”

The article has since been corrected, after Full Fact contacted Sky News to point out that its headline was misleading, as it suggested that the data in question shows that grocery prices have fallen. In actual fact, it shows that prices are still rising, but less steeply than previously.

The article reports on research published by the market research consultancy Kantar. In a press release, Kantar says: “Grocery price inflation has seen its steepest decline since inflation peaked in March this year, falling 1.6 percentage points to 14.9% in the four weeks to 9 July 2023”.

But this is not the same as saying grocery prices have actually fallen, as the Sky News article previously appeared to suggest.

Recent polling has found that this is a common misconception when it comes to understanding inflation. It’s therefore important that news publications ensure their reporting of inflation statistics is accurate to avoid causing confusion.

Falling inflation does not necessarily mean that prices are lower than they were previously—but instead that prices are not rising as quickly as they were.


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FACT CHECK


** Study didn’t show ‘hairdressers have a higher cancer risk because of chemicals at work’ ([link removed])
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An article published by the Sun claimed new research shows that exposure to chemicals at work makes hairdressers and women in some other professions more likely to develop ovarian cancer.

But this is not what the research shows, and the Sun has now corrected the article after contact from Full Fact.

An author of the study in question, Dr Anita Koushik from the University of Montreal School of Public Health, told us that it was exploratory and did not establish any definite associations between people’s work and their risk of ovarian cancer.

Dr Koushik said: “The Sun has not accurately reported our work.”

The media must report scientific research accurately, and correct mistakes quickly when they happen, so that people are not misled about important risks that they might face in their daily lives. We’re grateful to the Sun for making a quick correction in this case.


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