Indian doctors being denied visas despite British crisis
27 April 2018 5:25 PM GMT
London: Hundreds of Indian doctors are being denied visas to come and work in the UK's state-funded National Health Service (NHS) despite an ongoing medical staffing crisis in Britain, health sector experts have said.
The UK Home Office has a cap on the number of visas issued to skilled workers, including doctors, applying to come and work in Britain from outside the European Union (EU). Employers warned on Friday that the process has prevented them from filling crucial medical staff shortages in the NHS. "We are aware of a few hundred doctors being denied visas over the past few months, a majority of whom are doctors from India," said Dr Ramesh Mehta, president of the British Association of Physicians of Indian Origin (BAPIO).
"We as an organisation have supported the Health Education England (HEE) initiative to bring doctors in from India on a learn and return basis, which addresses the acute shortage faced by the NHS. But the Home Office has been absolutely bureaucratic and are stopping these doctors from coming in," he said.
The row came to the fore as it emerged that Indian doctors recruited recently for a scheme in the northwest of England to supply junior doctors to 30 NHS trusts had been denied visas. "NHS organisations have been unable to obtain the required permits for months for essential medical colleagues," said Danny Mortimer, chief executive of NHS Employers.
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