Doctor shortage drives UK immigration to look to India

This seems to be the first test for the new UK government’s stricter immigration policies which have made restricted entry for all foreigners wanting to live, study or work in the UK.

The UK government is seeing no alternative but to explore options of recruiting doctors from overseas including India and other nations to begin work in various UK hospitals in the month of August this year.

An acute shortage of junior medicos in England is the result of stricter UK immigration norms introduced way back in 2006 that made it very difficult for medical professionals from non-EU to practice in the UK. Hence, many foreign medicos left UK and returned to their native countries.

The situation seems to so serious that quite a few number of hospitals in the UK had no choice but to close down some emergency and specialties departments sending signals to the UK immigration department to launch a recruitment drive for doctors in India and other nations.

According to postgraduate dean of medical training for Wales, Professor Derek Gallen, wrong UK immigration policies including limited hours for doctors in the UK (restricted to 48 hours a week) were forced too quickly without realizing the imminent consequences of such drastic actions. 

Bad decisions have eventually led to a severe shortage of doctors in the UK hospitals, added Gallen.

Although, the Department of Health sought help from the BAPIO (British Association of Physicians of Indian Origin) in recruitment of junior medicos from India, but, it is unlikely to bring the desired results because of tight UK visa rules for doctors hailing from non-EU nations.

Taking a cue from the present scenario in many UK hospitals which are facing partial closures due to shortage of medico staff, the Department of Health is in favor of relaxation of UK visa norms.

But, immigration policies are governed by the UK Home Office and there has not been any hint of relaxing UK visa policies by the Home Office so far.