Foreign doctors forced out of UK amid visa crackdown

Foreign doctors are leaving Britain because stricter visa rules have left them without jobs, the government has been warned.

Many are completing their training only to be stuck because regulations make it difficult for sponsors to employ them.

The Royal College of General Practitioners has written to Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood, calling for urgent action to make it easier for international medical graduates (IMGs) who have completed their GP speciality training in the UK to secure work in the NHS.

In the letter, it warns that planned immigration reforms include an increase in the costs of sponsoring foreign workers, which would have a financial knock-on effect on surgeries.

The institute is urging the government to grant GPs from overseas, who have completed postgraduate medical training in the UK, the right to apply for indefinite leave to remain (ILR).

GP speciality training lasts three years – two years short of the current five years required in the country to apply for ILR.

It means that they need to find a practice that is willing, and has a licence, to sponsor them.

A recent survey by the RCGP and British Medical Association of 521 GPs and GP Registrars who either need or had recently secured a visa to work in the UK, found 61 per cent said they would make plans to leave the country if their difficulty finding a GP job continues. It also found 71 per cent said finding a job in a practice that could sponsor their visa was difficult or very difficult. A separate RCGP survey of 493 general practice managers found that only 29 per cent of practices currently offer visa s