“A thousand” foreign GPs are threatened with expulsion from the Home Office in a new blow to the NHS after British taxpayers pay more than £50,000 a year to train them.
The NHS in England has lost the equivalent of around 2,000 full-time primary care physicians since 2015, making it difficult for patients to get appointments.
New hires have now received letters acknowledging that they have been “removed” from the UK a few weeks after completing their training for the position.
Under the Ministry of the Interior’s rules, foreign doctors must work under a skilled worker visa for at least five years before applying for permanent residence, a period that covers most of the specialist medical training.
But primary care physicians usually receive a certificate of completion of training after three years, leaving a two-year gap that they must sponsor if they want to stay in the country when their visa expires.
NHS England was expected to sponsor doctors within the two-year period, but failed to reach an agreement with the Home Office.
Health education UK fears 1,000 temporary visas will expire by March 2023.
Health education UK fears 1,000 temporary visas will expire in March next year
Dr Pushpo Hossain said: Mirror: ‘These are licensed family doctors who pay taxes, are trained with tax money and are very important to the NHS. Doctors have been accused of overstuffing emergency rooms.
“The UK needs these foreign GPs and more to tackle the current crisis.”
Dr. Margaret Ikpoh of the Royal College of Family Physicians also told the House of Commons Committee on Health and Social Care this week that some doctors “have gone from literally celebrating being a family doctor to receiving letters saying who has been threatened with eviction.”
The RCGP automatically asks international medical graduates who qualify as UK practitioners to stay indefinitely to contain the crisis.
Sir Robert Francis QC, head of Healthwatch UK, told MPs that more than half of the watchdog’s complaints about GPs relate to access.
He added: “Patients … definitely have a hard time getting a personal appointment with a family doctor.”
Health leaders say taxpayers are spending £50,000 a year training each and every one of their primary care doctors in a severe shortage but are about to lose them in other countries (archive photo)
He also warned that patients present to the overcrowded emergency room after finding it impossible to continue their medical practice or NHS 111 service.
Sir Robert said they were “kept on the phone forever” and added, “This is undoubtedly one of the things that drives people to go to the emergency room, which as we know is the wrong place for almost all of these people.”
A spokesperson for the Ministry of Interior said: “Workers from abroad make an invaluable contribution to our national health service, helping to keep vital services and save lives.
“Young doctors can use the time between the end of training and the end of their visa to seek and apply for jobs.”
Source: Daily Mail
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