Recruitment of thousands of vital overseas doctors risks being 'stifled' by rigid Home Office visa rules, watchdogs warn

General Medical Council and Royal College of Physicians say efforts to tackle staff shortages are being ‘frustrated’

The GMC said that the NHS ‘relies on the expertise of doctors from overseas’ (iStock)

Organisations in charge of training and registering doctors to work in the UK have condemned the Home Office for visa rules which are “stifling” efforts to recruit thousands of doctors from overseas.

The General Medical Council (GMC) and the Royal College of Physicians (RCP) have each criticised the government after it was revealed that the prime minister had personally vetoed visa exemptions for 100 Indian doctors recruited by the NHS.

RCP president Professor Jane Dacre has written to Theresa May asking for an explanation of her reasoning in light of the “need for more doctors to ensure safe staffing levels for patient care”.

Meanwhile, the GMC warned that it was seeing huge increases in the numbers of doctors wanting to work in the UK, but said many are struggling to get visas.

To work in the UK doctors must be on the medical register maintained by the GMC, and those coming from outside the EU have to pass strict language and competency tests in addition to their visa requirements.

The GMC said it “expects more than 5,000 doctors” from outside the EU to sit these exams in 2018, an increase of 66 per cent on the 2,966 who took it in 2017.

It adds that the NHS “relies on the expertise of doctors from overseas”.

“It is frustrating that while one government department is working hard to recruit doctors into an overstretched health service, another is enforcing eligibility conditions which stifle those efforts,” said GMC chief executive Charlie Massey.

The revelation that the Home Office’s “hostile environment” policy is actively sabotaging the efforts of other government departments has heaped fresh criticism on the prime minister, who first established it.

Ms May is still contending with a scandal over the deportation of Caribbean migrants, the so-called Windrush generation, which led to the resignation of home secretary Amber Rudd.

In her letter Professor Dacre calls for further reforms to attract more doctors, including doubling the number of places on two-year training schemes for doctors to come over and work in the NHS.

She writes: “Given the length of time it takes to train a doctor, the NHS will need to continue to recruit doctors from overseas to meet patient need in the short-term.

“We therefore need to devise a system allowing the NHS to recruit enough shortage specialities, whilst also having the flexibility to bring in doctors who work in other specialities when there is a requirement.”