UK immigration changes compromising NHS safety
May 14 2009 by Gareth McConnell
Meldrum: Doctors will leave UK
Changes to tier 1 UK immigration requirements could deny the UK of qualified doctors and put prospective ones off from coming to work in the UK, claims Dr. Hamish Meldrum, Chairman of the British Medical Association.
As of March 31, tougher entrance requirements mean that all new UK visa applicants entering the workforce via the tier 1 immigration route must have a Master’s degree.
Dr. Meldrum has pointed out a medical degree is classified as a Bachelor’s meaning junior doctors and medical students who have been studying in the UK for up to seven years will not be able to qualify for the highly skilled positions, threatening the already stretched National Health System.
"The change to the Tier 1 requirements will seriously restrict international students, who have completed their undergraduate studies at UK medical schools from continuing with their postgraduate medical education beyond the Foundation Programme,” said Dr. Meldrum in a letter to Alan Johnson, the Secretary of State for Health.
“The full implementation of the European Working Time Directive and its impact on junior doctors’ training hours, coupled with a situation in which a proportion of prospective trainees can no longer continue with their training due to ever-tightening immigration rules, is likely to exacerbate rota gaps, putting patient safety at greater risk."
With the NHS already facing staff shortages in a range of medical specialities because of previous changes to the UK immigration system, Dr. Meldrum is adamant the Department of Health deals with the issue urgently.
"Restricting their career options to such an extent represents a huge waste of taxpayers' money and may lead to affected doctors leaving the UK permanently,” he said.
"The BMA is requesting that the Department of Health intervenes to ensure that the changes to Tier 1 are prospective and do not impact upon either those individuals who are recent graduates of UK medical schools or existing international medical students who began their studies prior to the increased Tier 1 requirements of 31 March 2009."
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