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Overseas Doctors
On 7th March 2006 the Department of Health announced that the Government will be changing the specific category within the immigration rules for postgraduate doctors and dentists. These changes will come into effect shortly.

At the moment, this category enables doctors and dentists to train in Foundation Programmes, in Senior House Officer and equivalent grades and in Specialist Registrar and equivalent grades. For immigration purposes they are considered as being in training, and not in employment in the UK. This will no longer be the case, and these will now be considered as employment posts for immigration purposes. This means that these doctors and dentists will need to meet the requirements of an employment category of the Immigration Rules, such as the work permit provisions.

Both the needs and the structure of the health service and medical training programmes have changed considerably since this category was introduced, as have the immigration provisions for overseas nationals who want to work in the UK. In addition, the number of places in UK medical and dental schools has increased, meaning that there are now more UK graduates seeking relevant training posts.

There is therefore no longer a need for a specific category in the Immigration Rules to enable doctors and dentists to train in the UK for many years. However, there will still be a category called Postgraduate Doctors and Dentists. In future, this will only provide for those doctors and dentists who have completed their medical / dental studies in the UK to take their Foundation Programme here.

Any existing leave will continue on the current conditions. This means that, if someone has valid leave as a Postgraduate Doctor or Dentist, they can continue in their current post and take up any other relevant training posts until their leave expires.

We are putting transitional arrangements in place so that anyone with leave as a Postgraduate Doctor or Dentist who needs an extension of stay to complete their current training post (or one offered to them before the announcement was made) will be able to switch into the work permit system without their employer needing to advertise the post first. Further information on the transitional arrangements will be available nearer the time.

Further information is available at the NHS Employers website.

Other links
Foundation Programme eligibility - click here for information on Foundation Programme application procedures and eligibility.

NACPME - The National Advice Centre for Postgraduate Medical Education (NACPME) aims to provide accurate and easily accessible information on topics relevant to overseas-qualified doctors intending to train and study in the UK.

BAPIO - British Association of Physicians of Indian Origin. This group aims to monitor and highlight the difficulties faced by doctors coming from the Indian sub-continent and to support them.

ROSE - ROSE is an NHS led website to support refugee and overseas qualified health professionals who are settled in the UK return to work in the health sector.

http://www.gmc-uk.org/doctors/plab/ - The PLAB test is the main route for International Medical Graduates (IMGs) to show they have the necessary skills and knowledge to practice medicine in the UK. Click here to find out if you need to take the PLAB test and also guidance for PLAB test candidates. http://www.mmc.nhs.uk/pages/careers/overseas-doctors