Immigration farce will damage Scottish NHS

Published on Monday 6 October 2008 09:55

CHANGES introduced to streamline the complex immigration rules in the UK have had unforeseen consequences for doctors from overseas who have completed their undergraduate medical training in Scotland.

These changes mean doctors who have been educated and begun their training in Scotland could be prevented from accessing speciality training posts.

Some graduates of medical schools had been advised to apply to the Fresh Talent: Working in Scotland immigration category to get a work visa that would allow them to enter into training. These visas are valid for two years and now, because of the changes to immigration rules, when they are applying to switch to the new Tier 1 immigration category, they are being advised that their access to training posts has been blocked.

Because of this confusion, these doctors' careers are now under threat. This is unacceptable for doctors who have a clear commitment to the NHS in Scotland and is a waste of taxpayers' money.

Fresh Talent has now ceased to take on new applicants but over the next couple of years, doctors will encounter similar problems as their visas run out unless something is done to rectify the situation.

This problem appears to be unique to doctors working under Fresh Talent: Working in Scotland visas. Graduates who applied to complete their training under the former Postgraduate Doctor and Dentist immigration category have had their future access to training posts safeguarded. The UK Government, however, appears to have overlooked the fact that another immigration category existed in Scotland.

The BMA has called on the UK Government to review this situation and introduce an alternative means of getting these doctors on to the new immigration category without any restriction to their future access to training posts.

&#149 Dr Andrew Conway-Morris is anaesthetist at Edinburgh Royal Infirmary and deputy chairman of the BMA's Scottish Junior Doctors Committee