Prioritising UK-taught medics for training places ‘unfair’, says former RCGP president

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By Nick Lester, PA Media

A leading doctor has said a move to put British-taught medics at the front of the queue for training posts is unfair to international graduates, including UK nationals who studied overseas.

Former president of the Royal College of General Practitioners Baroness Gerada argued the government reforms were “basically pulling the rug” from under those who faced losing out.

Plans which have been rushed through Parliament and are set to become law would see medical graduates from the UK and Ireland prioritised for both foundation and specialist placements, along with other specific groups.

For specialty training those who studied abroad but are British citizens, currently on the UK Foundation Programme, or with indefinite leave to remain will also be prioritised.

The move comes amid stiff competition for training roles and concerns that doctors failing to secure a post are leaving the profession.

Health secretary Wes Streeting has previously highlighted the need for the NHS to end its “over-reliance on international recruitment”.

‘Pulling the rug’

The Medical Training (Prioritisation) Bill forms part of the government’s push to resolve an ongoing dispute with resident doctors in England which has led to strike action.

It has, however, left flexibility in the future for the government to respond to shortfalls in specialties by opening recruitment beyond UK graduates.

Raising her “anxieties” at third reading, independent crossbencher Gerada said: “It is unfair to international medical graduates, who we have entreated to come to this country for the last two decades – we have even paid for them to come – to work in hard jobs, in places where UK graduates did not want to do them.

“Now that we have more people than places, we are basically pulling the rug from under them.

“We are jeopardising their careers, their futures, their families and their visas.”

She added: “It is also unfair to those UK nationals who chose, again in good faith, to study overseas and now have been treated like international medical graduates, when they are not.”

It is also “unfair” to previous commitments by the government on transnational undergraduate and postgraduate education, she added.

‘More sustainable workforce’

Earlier, health minister Baroness Merron said the legislation would “ensure a more sustainable and resilient medical workforce”.

She told peers: “It will ensure that we make the best use of the substantial taxpayer investment in medical training and it will give our homegrown talent a clear path to becoming the next generation of NHS doctors.”

The minister added: “We are clear that this bill does not and cannot resolve all the workforce issues”.

“It sits alongside a range of action that the government are taking to ensure that the NHS has the right people in the right places, with the right skills to care for people when they need it.”

Conservative shadow health minister Lord Kamall supported the bill as a “step forward” but questioned if using it as emergency legislation was merely to give Streeting “a bargaining chip” in negotiations with the British Medical Association.

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