The British Medical Association (BMA) says postgraduate deaneries, which train doctors, face a �20m shortfall.

These include the Northern Deanery, which is attached to Newcastle University, and the London Deanery which have had to make cutbacks.

Now the BMA is calling for the government to reinstate the funding.

The BMA said that both deaneries in London and Newcastle had been forced to cut funding for flexible training posts, which allow junior doctors to train part-time.

Huge loss

Dr Jo Hilborne, deputy chair of the BMA's junior doctors committee, said: "Many hospitals already take a dim view of junior doctors who want the opportunity to work part-time.

"What they seem to forget is that it costs �250,000 to train a doctor, and if they then abandon medicine for a career with better work-life balance, there's a huge loss to the NHS.

"Reinstating deaneries' funding would be an excellent way for the government to show it is serious about improving working lives."

A Department of Health spokeswoman said: "This year the NHS training budget has increased by 8.5% - �290m over last year's level.

"This has enabled us to increase Strategic Health Authorities' training allocations by an average of 7.3%, with every health authority receiving 3.2% and many considerably more."