Troubled times for International Medical Graduates in UK – Part II
posted in - Education, - UK Doc |UK Doc is Guest Blogger for today and this is his article he submitted which summarises the position of overseas doctors in UK:
Further to Lord Warner’s announcement on 7 March 2006 about the new Work Permit requirement for IMGs intending to work in UK, I thought I should summarize what the new rule means to Malaysian doctors & medical students in UK.
1. All doctors wishing to work in the UK from outside the European Union (EU) will be required to have a work permit from April 2006. The move means that any NHS trust 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. If there is one British or EU applicant for a certain training post, Malaysian doctors who have no Permanent Resident (PR) status in UK will not be eligible to apply. Practically, Malaysian doctors in UK without PR status can forget about post-graduate training in UK except:
2. Non-EU doctors who studied in UK universities are allowed permit free training to complete their TWO years Foundation Programme which is equivalent to the previous Pre-registration House Officer (PRHO) & first year Senior House Officer (SHO) level of training. This is to enable them to register with the General Medical Council (GMC). Thereafter, they too will be subjected to Work Permit requirement practically excluding them from further post-graduate training in UK.
3. Malaysian doctors who are currently working in UK will be allowed to complete their remaining contracts. After then they will not be eligible for further application or extension of post-graduate unless the Work Permit condition can be fulfilled (which is practically impossible). Those whose permit free visas are expiring but whose employment contracts remain valid will be allowed to extend their visa in the form of Work Permit to complete the remaining terms of their employment. There after they too will only be eligible to apply for posts that cannot be filled by EU or UK doctors. Effectively, if you are in the Type I Specialist Registrars’ post, you are safe. As for the rest, you have missed the boat.
4. Malaysian doctors who are in the process of applying for jobs will find their CVs literally thrown into the bins.
5. Those short-listed will be barred to proceed in their job application.
6. This is a tragedy to many Malaysian doctors affected by the new ruling. It means they will have to uproot their families, sell their houses and cars etc, come home and start from the bottom again, unless the Malaysian government is prepared to do something to bridge and complete their post-graduate training. The announcement came with virtually no warning and no grace period for people to adjust or make necessary arrangement.
7. Those who intend to sit the PLAB exam please stop doing it. PLAB has practically lost its reason to exist.
8. Malaysian prospective students and parents SHOULD NOT send their children to UK unless they are certain that they only want to come to UK for undergraduate training only. JPA on the other hand no longer has to worry about the issue of non-returning scholars.
9. There is protest going on. BMA and the Royal Colleges are speaking on IMGs behalf. The rule is unlikely to change in the near future but they are trying to help those IMGs who are already working in UK who have been most unfairly treated.
References:
1. Extra Investment and Increase In Home-Grown Medical Recruits Eases UK Reliance On Overseas Doctors
2. Overseas Doctors : Change to the Immigration Rules for Postgraduate Doctors and Dentists
Further reading:
3. The ‘Work Permit’ saga continues…(Greener Pastures Blog Post)
Related MMR Post:
Troubled times for International Medical Graduates in UK
Last 5 posts by UK Doc
- Is MOH oblivious of the Occupational Health interest of its junior employees? - September 28th, 2006
- Drooling..... - August 2nd, 2006
- Oral cancer prevention: to screen or to educate? - June 8th, 2006
- How can we improve survival of cancer but not its mortality rate? - May 27th, 2006
- Down syndrome: the need for a surveillance programme - December 6th, 2005
June 20th, 2006 at 7:57 am
Thursday, 15 June 2006
Thousands of doctors could be forced to leave the country because of lack of opportunity in the NHS, the British Medical Association is warning.
The association says around 21,000 junior doctors are competing for 9,500 training posts in England in 2007.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/5082244.stm
This is due to the phasing out of senior house officer posts next year following a revamp of medical training.
A BMA survey last year indicated that most junior doctors would prefer to continue their training overseas than to take up a non-training post.
Australian authorities have already come to the UK to recruit doctors.
June 8th, 2006 at 6:30 am
Spotted two letters in Malaysiakini on this topic:
‘Get lost’ - that’s the British for you
Better for doctors to get basic degree here
May 21st, 2006 at 6:18 pm
As I now have Paged Comments, I am reopening the Commments section for this topic but you are still welcome to comment in the MMR Forum thread:
http://forum.malaysianmedicine.com/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=599
May 12th, 2006 at 5:27 am
As the comment section here is becoming very long, it will take the page a long time to load, especially if you are on a slow dial-up. I am hance closing the comment section and you may continue in the MMR Forums in this thread:
http://forum.malaysianmedicine.com/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=599
May 12th, 2006 at 4:34 am
The awards of scholarship to persue medicine oversea is an outdated strategy. We have more than enough medical schools in Malaysia (soon will flood the market). Basically, not much difference in term of quality of work among doctors graduated from various medical schools from different countries. What Malaysia lack is specialist and subspecialists. The money should be used to send doctors for further subspecialist training in overseas. To train one doctor with basic degreee in Western country would cost about RM 1 million but with this aount of money, 3 doctors can be sent for subspecialty training and they are more likely to bring new skills back to the country and more importantly stay in public services.
May 12th, 2006 at 4:18 am
@ngchmd: thanksfor the clarification : I am not particularly intereseted what the “oncologists” in Bolehland charge.
Are we saying then, that a very much more complicated plot exists between PSD scholars, where they are sent and why they may not wish to return to serve their bonds? Is the university you have mentioned located in Eire? And, is academia subservient to commercialism where the ability to pay (even by a government)rides above that of the ability to excel academically? Perhaps the opposition may wish to pressurise the government to hold an inquiry into the award of overseas JPA scholarships in medicine?