British Govt cornered for hiring 'foreign doctors'

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London, May 8: : Within days of Indian and other non-European Union doctors winning a case in the House of Lords, a parliamentary committee has criticised the government for its handling of the issue.

In a highly critical report, members of the House of Commons Select Committee on Health lambasted poor planning, bad coordination with the Home Office over immigration controls and inadequate leadership by the Department of Health.

The committee described shortlisting for jobs in the National Health Service (NHS) as disastrous and administration as nothing short of chaotic.

The scheme, through which thousands of Indian doctors get training jobs in the NHS, is known as Modernising Medical Careers (MMC) introduced last year.

But it caused a major controversy after more than a thousand British-trained junior doctors were left without training posts, while many Indians and others from outside the EU were given jobs.

Many British doctors were forced to leave the country to find jobs in Australia, Canada and the US after they failed to get a job through the MMC.

Last week, the House of Lords upheld an appeal by the British Physicians of Indian Origin (Bapio) that the guidance to favour British-trained doctors was unlawful.

Kevin Barron, chairman of the committee, said that plans to discourage foreign applicants by charging them for training was impractical. New primary legislation might prove effective, he said.

Many British-trained doctors are likely to face further disappointment after the House of Lords ruling since Indian and other non-EU doctors already in the UK would now be eligible to apply for the training posts in the NHS.

Hamish Meldrum, chairman of the BMA, said the report was a damning indictment of the Government's failure to listen. "The medical profession's concerns were repeatedly and arrogantly disregarded. Thousands of junior doctors paid the price," he said.

The report said that attempts to limit the number of applications from foreign doctors were badly managed, while governance systems were overcomplicated, with roles ill defined and lines of accountability irrational and blurred.

The committee noted that the Royal Colleges and the British Medical Association had warned the Department of Health of problems, and that it chose to ignore them.

"We recommend that the department ensures that it heeds such warnings in future," the report says. The worst failing was the Government's inability to prevent open access to training posts from applicants from across the world, even though it had expanded medical schools to make Britain self-sufficient in doctors, the committee said.