Aussie trainee doctors excluded from UK

[Ezekiel20]

---

Members do not see this ad.

Okay, so I wasn't that keen on training in the UK, although I did occasionally dream of living in England so I no longer have to get up at 4am to watch Premier League matches... but it seems that the door's closed now.

Just thought you'd like to know.

Aussie trainee doctors excluded from UK

February 8, 2008 - 9:45AM


Trainee Australian doctors will be banned from applying for jobs with England's public health service in an attempt to preserve jobs for home-grown medical graduates.

The British government's crackdown on overseas doctors means only trainee medicos from European Union (EU) member countries will be able to seek jobs with the National Health Service (NHS).

Ironically, an Australian-style highly skilled migrants points system will be used to stop doctors from anywhere outside the EU entering England for postgraduate training posts.

Details of the new system were announced on Thursday and mean that from February 29 all highly skilled foreign nationals working in Britain will have to apply to the government to extend their stay.

As in Australia, migrants will need enough points to qualify to work, train and study in Britain.

The change in rules is expected to prevent up to 5,000 graduate doctors, mainly from Commonwealth countries including Australia and India, securing NHS training posts.

Health Secretary Alan Johnson said the new rules were needed because otherwise an estimated 700 to 1,000 British doctors would be unable to secure a training place in 2009 and beyond.

Most international graduates who came to work or train in the NHS also tended to leave within four years, he said.

"I cannot stress enough that we are not closing the door to international doctors working in the NHS," he said.

"These new rules only apply to training places in the UK.

"International doctors will still be able to come and work in the NHS in thousands of other non-training posts and will still be able to fill training places in shortage specialties."

In previous years, the NHS has had to rely on recruiting overseas trainee doctors because of the lack of British-trained graduates.

However, Britain has expanded the number of university places for medical undergraduates in an attempt to fill the gap.

The result has been that the increasing number of locally trained graduates are forced to compete with a steady stream of overseas rivals keen to gain overseas experience in the NHS.

The NHS training posts are keenly sought after because they enable graduate doctors to become a GP or consultant.

Among the 28,000 applications the NHS received to fill 15,500 training places in England last year, about half were from overseas.

The British government estimated that more than 1,300 applicants from local medical schools missed on out securing a spot because of competition from overseas rivals.

"We expect a similar number to be affected this year," the Health Department said in a statement.

The British Medical Association (BMA) described the rule change as confusing for overseas doctors in the NHS.

"Taxpayers have made a major investment in the careers of UK doctors, and it makes sense to manage the numbers of international doctors coming to work in the NHS in future," BMA chairman of council Dr Hamish Meldrum said.

"Our concern is that the overseas colleagues already working in the UK are being both scapegoated and sent confusing messages.

"At a time when they need clarity, it's being made very unclear to them what jobs they can apply to and when."

© 2008 AAP

http://news.smh.com.au/aussie-trainee-doctors-excluded-from-uk/20080208-1qyp.html

 

[EuroPhysician]

Australian trained graduates used to be able to register in the UK without taking the PLAB. Its silly considering that Australian training is probably more comparable to that of the UK than EU countries like France and Germany.

 

[Purifyer]

hmm. From what I understand, this is not so much a medical licensing issue but a visa issue? So UK citizens graduating from commonwealth med schools are still fine? Not that I care particularly as I have no intention of going to the UK and the new accredited training system over there sounds like its in a complete shambles

 

[DrIng]

I agree that from what I've heard training in the Uk would not be much fun, however it is OK once you're a consultant, as I understand it. bu to clarify it is not a visa issue but a decision of the General medical Council of the UK. So that someone who is a UK citizen (like me) and graduated from an Australian medical school (like me) can't work in the Uk without taking all the licensing exams (which cost several thousand dollrs, take many months to get through and have ridiculously low chances fo getting a job at the end of it all) whereas someone who graduated from a German medical school (for example) and is a German citizen and may not speak a word of english, can get automatic recognition of their qualifications. The system is crazy.
but lets face it with several hundred applicants for every job vs being able to walk into a job in nearly any hospital in the country, combined with our weather and cheaper cost of living.... for me the choise is easy!

 

[Dr.Millisevert]

I agree that from what I've heard training in the Uk would not be much fun, however it is OK once you're a consultant, as I understand it. bu to clarify it is not a visa issue but a decision of the General medical Council of the UK. So that someone who is a UK citizen (like me) and graduated from an Australian medical school (like me) can't work in the Uk without taking all the licensing exams (which cost several thousand dollrs, take many months to get through and have ridiculously low chances fo getting a job at the end of it all) whereas someone who graduated from a German medical school (for example) and is a German citizen and may not speak a word of english, can get automatic recognition of their qualifications. The system is crazy.
but lets face it with several hundred applicants for every job vs being able to walk into a job in nearly any hospital in the country, combined with our weather and cheaper cost of living.... for me the choise is easy!

That's EU for you... You're better off as you know in Australia anyhow. 🙂 👍

 

[redshifteffect]

Welcome to Canada DrIng, as we face the same discrimination there.

 

[driedcaribou]

That's been brewing for quite some time. The Herald is a bit slow... as always.

It's a shame but if you have connections, I am sure you can make it work.

It's all a matter of how badly you want to do it.

 

[JoeNamaMD]

The UK shut its door to Australian graduates for a while, you need to write the PLAB now to be considered for registration in the UK. It was not the case years ago. Canada is a fairly closed door as well, it might be possible to work in Canada after completing registrar training in Australia but when you consider the salaries in Canada as well as working conditions in Australia(Canadians work like Americans but get half the pay), why bother with Canada? The USA is another story since they regularly take in IMGs. Many IMGs in Canada will never be able to practice medicine there.

 

[chromophobe]

From the below article it seems Purifyer is correct at the moment, the new changes only affect visa eligibility. Preferencing EU graduates was overturned previously, and currently under appeal. Those with EU passports will need to wait until May to see what the courts say I guess.

I also just checked the PLAB requirements; IMGs don't need to take the PLAB if they are non-UK EU nationals. Both Non-EU national & UK national IMGs take the PLAB. This seems strange, but works out for me luckily. I can't imagine the rationale for targeting UK citizens specificaly, sorry DrIng :/.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/politics/article3321919.ece
NHS closes its doors to foreign doctors
Nigel Hawkes, Health Editor

The Home Office announced yesterday that, from next month, doctors living outside the European Union will not be eligible to apply for posts through the Highly Skilled Migrants Programme — hitherto an open door to migrants with the right qualifications.
From April 1, the door will also be closed to migrants from India who are applying under a new points system. So-called Tier 1 migrants — those with the highest qualifications — will be barred from applying for higher medical training posts. Non-EU doctors already in Britain as Highly Skilled Migrants, or those seeking leave to remain as Tier 1 migrants, will still be free to apply.
[...]
the Department of Health yesterday announced that it would consult over proposals to impose additional limits on foreign applications.
Its preferred option is to tell NHS trusts that international medical graduates should be eligible for posts only if there are no suitable applicants from Britain or the EU. That would exclude almost all of them.
An earlier attempt to implement such guidance was challenged in the courts by the British Association of Physicians of Indian Origin (BAPIO), which won a Court of Appeal ruling that it was unlawful. The department appealed to the House of Lords, which is expected to reach a decision in May.
If the Government wins, it could exclude all graduates from medical schools outside the EU from training posts with immediate effect. If it loses, it will have to find a way of implementing such guidance within the law.