What next?

Mumbai, March 29: From July, Indian doctors in the UK fear that they may face joblessness.

A recent announcement of the British government has created panic among thousands of Indian doctors in the UK. Early this month, health minister Lord Warner announced that all doctors wishing to work in the UK from outside the European Union will be required to have a work permit from July.

From July, the UK government’s National Health Scheme wishing to employ a doctor from outside the EU will have to prove that a “home-grown” doctor cannot fill the vacant post, ending the current “permit free training” arrangement for international doctors.

“We now have more than 1,17,000 doctors working in the NHS, 27,400 more than in 1997, as well as record levels of doctors in training in UK 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 had said.

Adding that in future, NHS trusts will be required to get a work permit for every doctor they recruit from outside the EU, the minister added: “We recognise that international doctors have made a huge contribution to the NHS?. However, increasingly the NHS will be less reliant on international medical recruitment.”

The decision has Indian doctors in the UK up in arms. The British Association of Physicians of Indian Origin (Bapio), with a membership of over 25,000, is leading the protest of South Asian doctors, hoping for a miraculous turnaround.

It will organise a peaceful, but huge, protest march next month, most probably on April 21, in front of the department of health office in London. It is also circulating a petition to campaign against the decision.

It means that “permit free training” for overseas doctors, which makes life easier for foreign medical students in the UK, is ending; and the “equal opportunities policy” will no longer apply for a doctor’s job selection, says the association.

“This has significant implications for overseas doctors at all levels of training. They will find that after years of serving the NHS, they are being thrown aside in job selection. There is no guarantee they will continue to be employed in further posts,” says its online campaign.

The association also suggests many will have to relocate at short notice, causing disruption to career, finances and family life.

“It will jeopardise the career of many international doctors who are already in the training post and also those who have passed the Professional Linguistic and Assessment Board (Plab) test,” says its petition to the health department.

The certificate given by the General Medical Council to practise medicine in the UK draws a number of young hopefuls from countries like India every year to Britain.

The decision means that “non-EU doctors will only be given jobs if there are no takers from the EU and then again on a work permit basis for each”, says Dr C. Mohan, one of the protesters on behalf of Bapio. “Those who still want to come to do Plab 2 will only be given a three-month visa and they have to go back to their own countries to apply for jobs,” he adds.

“The law applies to people who are currently in the system, too. Many will not progress and, if they wish to stay in the UK, they will have to settle down for staff grade jobs or similar service jobs and not higher training jobs,” Mohan says on an e-mail group, where he wants to give “appropriate advice” to juniors aspiring to come to the UK.

“I have just been able to stop one (person) coming from Maharashtra, a bright trainee whose CV was impressive,” he says. “Just one month ago, I would have been supremely confident that she would have had a bright career in the UK.”