‘Common sense' overhaul of visa rules for GPs urged

The Royal College of GPs has urged Home Secretary Sajid Javid to act rapidly in overhauling immigration rules to allow appropriately-trained doctors to work as GPs in the NHS.

Writing to the Home Secretary, who has recently said that he will review the visa caps for doctors, Helen Stokes-Lampard outlined the intense resource pressures facing general practice in the UK and the current barriers preventing the recruitment of overseas GPs. The chair of the RCGP also warned that the government's target of attracting 5,000 more GPs by 2020 seems ‘increasingly difficult to achieve’.

Encouraging for common sense to prevail over policy and process, the college is calling for GPs to be added to the Migration Advisory Committee's Shortage Occupation List (SOL) and for urgent action to reduce the burdens of red tape and heavy financial costs that are preventing GP practices from employing the GPs they desperately need. According to the RCGP, the profession is caught in a 'pincer movement' of GPs retiring early and insufficient numbers of students who can take their place.

Stokes-Lampard wrote: "Most doctors in other medical specialities already meet the five-year criteria for application [for Indefinite Leave to Remain] by the time they finish speciality training in the UK. However, as GP training is just three years, they cannot apply for ILR until they have been in the UK for a further two years. This means that application for Tier 2 sponsorship is often their only option.

"It is clear from recent media reports that the public support the relaxing of immigration rules for people wanting to come from overseas to live in the UK to work in the NHS. We need an immigration system that puts human beings and common sense over policy and process, and works in the best interests of the British public."