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NRI, UK doctors held a demonstration in front of Department of Health, London

UK, April 21, 2006
Dr. Santosh Kumar

NRI doctors held a demonstration on April 21 at 11.30am in front of Richmond house, Department of Health (Richmond House 79 Whitehall,London,SW1A2NL).

The new rule will start on July 7, then only (EU) the European Union doctors will be freely able to become as doctors. All the others are required to come with work permit only. This law will practically block nearly all the doctors from India and other non EU countries to come and work here. This will also affect the doctors who have either passed the PLAB test recently or on training and without permanent residential status here. This change could hit up to 20,000 medical practitioners and 70 per cent of those affected come from the Indian

Mehta said 15,000 of those affected by the change were in the middle of their training. "Many of them have children in school, many have bought houses. Suddenly, everything is gone."

Medical trainees work for up to seven years as junior doctors before qualifying as consultants or general practitioners. Shortages of doctors in the past meant Britain encouraged overseas medics to train in the NHS, but a rise in the number of home-trained medical students has increased competition for suitable training jobs.

Lord Warner, Health Minister said, "We’ve been told for some time that we should be more self-sufficient in doctors and not suck in doctors from overseas. There’s been a 70 per cent increase in the number of medical school intakes over the last seven or eight years. We have to ensure there are postgraduate specialist training posts for our own UK graduates."

New work permit rule to train doctors in the UK hits doctors from India

London, April 01, 2006
Dr. Santosh Kumar

NRI doctors in UK, and the British Association of Physicians of Indian Origin (BAPIO), with a membership of over 25,000, is planning a protest outside the department of health in London later this month.

The Department of Health announced last mpnth that all doctors from outside the European Union will need a work permit to train in the UK. In order to recruit trainee doctors who qualified outside the EU, NHS trusts will need to demonstrate that they could not recruit a UK graduate.

"We will continue to need small numbers of specialist doctors, who can bring their skills and experience to the NHS. However, increasingly the NHS will be less reliant on international medical recruitment".said Health Minister Lord Warner.

Health Minister Lord Warner said, “We now have more than 117,000 doctors working in the NHS, 27,400 more than in 1997, as well as record levels of doctors in training in the U.K. medical schools.”
"This investment and expansion, coupled with the reform of medical education, is leading to increased competition for medical posts as vacancy rates fall," the minister said.

The regulations were announced without any consultation and there was no warning. It will affect all the trainees at different levels whether employed or unemployed." What is unfair is that many hundreds of doctors were misled into believing there was equal opportunity, and spent their money and time to come to UK in the hope of training opportunites. This sudden change means most of these doctors suddenly find themselves in a completely different market place" Said Dr.Lakshman member of BAPIO's Grand Advisory Council.

The department of health said, “Both the needs and the structure of the health service and medical training programs have changed considerably since this category was introduced, as have the immigration provisions for overseas nationals who want to work in the U.K. In addition, the number of places in U.K. medical and dental schools has increased, meaning that there are now more U.K. graduates seeking relevant training posts.”

"Sudden ending of PFT and introduction of work permit is the end of 'postgraduate training' for IMG's in this country" Said Dr.Satya from BAPIO's London Divison. He also said "It is astonishing that those who are already in the system are also not exempt from the new regulation.

NRI Dr.Anup Gupta said "In the garb of ending the PFT, Government is downplaying much more important point here. It's in fact encouraging the trusts to discriminate with legal authority".

Dr.Ramesh Mehta the BAPIO President said "We are already consulting our membership and plan to vigorously protest this unfair and unjust regulation.