We're astonished that Polly Toynbee actually said this

Which, given the things Polly Toynbee normally says, inuring us to astonishment much of the time, means that it must be particularly outrageous:

I see a compromise here – though junior doctors may resist. Why not pay them fairly, train and employ many more so they are not endlessly filling gaps and overworking – but oblige them, in exchange for their expensive training, to work for the NHS for, say, a decade.

If they were indentured to the NHS, along with dentists, nurses and the other medical professions,

Toynbee is seriously suggesting that we bring back time limited slavery? Indenture?

Yes, that does astonish us. Two further points occur. The first being that of course if we're going to enslave people whose education the State has paid for, we'd really rather better stop hiring people that another State has coughed up the education fees for. Thus no foreign trained doctors or nurses should be hired until, say, a decade after they finish their training. not that the NHS would survive such an imposition. The second being that if those who have been educated at the expense of the taxpayer are to be indentured then, well, taxes finance the secondary educations of 93% of the populace. Why aren't all of them to be held in, bound to, the UK economy for some years? That Tony Benn repeatedly suggested that this should apply to any university degree shows that it is a vile idea: but if it applies to nurses then why not to everyone?