Foreign doctors in the UK may find it difficult to apply for jobs under the proposed changes to the country's visa regime with plans to introduce a new test for the employers for ensuring European workers are given priority for skilled jobs. Currently, medical students and doctors from countries like India who have studied at a UK medical school are on a Tier 4 visa (Student visa). They then move on to apply for specialty training when they switch to a Tier 2 visa (work permit) and apply for specialty training posts at the same time as UK and EU residents. The UK government has proposed that if the employers wished to recruit a migrant from outside the settled workforce for a skilled job, they will need to show that they have carried out the Resident Labour Market Test (RLMT) unless the post is on the shortage occupation list, according to the new proposals. The British Medical Association has warned the government that if it implements new recommendations on visa rules from the Migrations Advisory Committee, the change would not only have a devastating impact on the 500 overseas medical graduates of UK medical schools each year, but also on patient care because of the insufficient time to plan ahead for the number of doctors coming through training. Restricting the supply of UK trained doctors progressing through the system could also severely disrupt the government’s goal of delivering more seven-day services and 5000 extra GPs. This comes at a time, when already one in three GPs are considering retiring in the next five years, hundreds of GP trainee posts remain vacant this year, and after the government’s imposition of a new contract on junior doctors, concerns are rising that many will vote with their feet and leave the NHS. The British Association of Physicians of Indian Origin (BAPIO), a representative body of nearly 50,000 Indian-origin doctors in the country, has decided to write to the UK Home Office warning of an impending "chaos" for NHS. On the other hand the UK government has also decided to set an extra immigration skills charge at £1000 per year. The BMA in a statement said that a skills charge set at this level would impose a cost of more than £3.5 million on the NHS, if it was applied to the 3602 doctors who were granted Tier 2 visas from August 2014 to August 2015. Health Education England, the single sponsor for all doctors training in England, would be subject to charges of more than £800,000 per year alone. The government has further proposed increasing the minimum salary threshold from £20,800 to £30,000 for acquiring a work permit for foreign doctors. The BMA has revealed that this increase would prevent doctors in training and many specialty doctors from being able to work less than full-time, which could lead to UK trained doctors being forced to leave the NHS, if they need flexible working arrangements due to caring or other responsibilities. BAPIO President Dr Ramesh Mehta told PTI: "We want to ensure Indian doctors are not used simply as a pair of hands to service the NHS. They should be treated equally as local doctors and given proper training before they return to their countries of origin.” "These new proposals solve political issues and not practical problems. In real life, these proposals are unlikely to work properly. The UK needs professional staff in the healthcare field as there is a huge shortage of doctors and nurses in the country. This move will cause chaos for the NHS, besides being unfair on doctors from overseas," he said. As part of a wider plan to engage with the NHS, BAPIO has facilitated a memorandum of understanding (MoU) between the Heart of England NHS Foundation Trust in Birmingham and the Maharashtra government to initially bring 10 doctors from India to train in emergency medicine in the UK. BAPIO is also planning on expanding these MoUs on a national scale between India and the UK. Source
