UK medical graduates will be given priority for NHS jobs, Streeting says

Credit: UK Parliament/CC BY 3.0 DEED/David Woodfall

By Erin Dean

UK medical graduates will be given priority for NHS posts over doctors who have studied overseas, health secretary Wes Streeting has said.

In an exclusive interview with Doctors.net.uk, Streeting confirmed the change to training posts would be set out in the forthcoming 10 Year Health Plan.

“We will prioritise UK graduates because we spend a lot of time and money training great doctors and other NHS staff here in Britain, whether they're home students or international students,” he said.

“I want to make sure that if you go through your medical training here in the UK, that you're able to work in the UK.”

It is “completely bonkers” to invest in the training of doctors and then be “ambivalent” over whether they can work in the UK or not, he said.

Streeting said more information on when this change will begin, how it will be implemented and which posts it will apply to, will be in the government’s health plan, expected in July.