Socioeconomic provisions for specialist training in Italy and the UK: integrating the differences.

Despite new insights on objectives, programmes, standards, curriculums and assessment of European postgraduate medical education being published all the time, few papers deal with the social situation of doctors in training across all European countries. By comparing the socioeconomic provisions for specialist training in Italy and the UK, this work identified several determinants negatively influencing the environment in which junior doctors practise. Modernisation of European postgraduate medical education can be taken forward, provided some regulation and some consistency in socioeconomic provisions for specialist training can be promoted by competent authorities across all European countries.