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The latest British Medical Association survey of medical students' finances reveals record debt levels, with an average debt of Pounds 3,696, almost 30 per cent higher than last year. The average debt for final-year students is Pounds 5,160.

Medical students have repeatedly pressed for an increase in the level of the student loan, and Rupert Gauntlett, chairman of the BMA medical students' committee, said the Government's student support package, whether in the form of loans or grants, was not enough.

He said: "More than 21 per cent of medical students now rely on bank loans. If this problem is not addressed, medicine is in danger of becoming the career preserve of the rich."