IMGs need two to three years in NHS to access training, doctors’ leaders say

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By Erin Dean

International medical graduates should have two to three years of NHS experience to qualify for specialty training posts, leading medical organisations have said.

Legislation giving UK graduates priority access to training places introduced earlier this year said that international medical graduates (IMGs) with “significant experience” in the NHS should also be eligible.

But the government has yet to define what counts as “significant” and has used a proxy measure of immigration status while it considers a precise definition.

The Academy of Medical Royal Colleges (ARMC) has now called for this experience to be defined as two or three years, while the Royal College of Physicians (RCP) has said it should be three years.

The organisations are placing the threshold lower than the five years of experience narrowly backed by British Medical Association members following a passionate debate last month.

The AMRC argues it should not be less than two years, to match UK graduates’ foundation programme, and “no more than three years”.