The Prime Minister has announced that fewer doctors will be recruited from overseas.
Eleven consultant specialties are to be removed from the shortage occupation list that identifies gaps in the English labour market, making it harder to recruit doctors from outside the European Economic Area (EEA).
Specialties that will no longer be on the list include paediatrics, dermatology, immunology, plastic surgery, intensive care and renal medicine.
Doctors’ representatives warned it would reduce the NHS’s ability to recruit flexibly.
Dr Ramesh Mehta, president of BAPIO, said: “Mr Brown’s statement seems to be more for political consumption than being realistic.
“The NHS has not yet recovered from the immigration rules fiasco of 2006 - it wouldn’t be surprising if the rules are reversed quickly when the recruitment crisis gets worse.”
In his first major speech on migration in nearly two years, Gordon Brown agreed the Migration Advisory Committee’s (MAC) plans to reduce the number of posts on the shortage occupation list.
Seen as a response to the rise in anti-immigration sentiment, the Prime Minister said he wanted “rising levels of skills, wages and employment” for British residents.
Terry John, chair of the BMA’s international committee, said: “The immigration system must be responsive to the needs of the NHS, and flexible enough to recruit overseas doctors where they are needed. There are still hospitals that are unable to fill junior doctor and consultant vacancies.
“It is therefore important that changes to immigration rules do not damage our ability to recruit the doctors we need to staff our NHS.”
In Scotland, the MAC rejected evidence from Scottish ministers seeking to retain biochemistry, ophthalmology, oral surgery and ENT on the list of consultant shortages. Only consultant radiologists remain on the shortage list.
In England, the only training grade added was ST4 level in paediatrics. Dr Mary McGraw, vice president of training at the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health, welcomed the move. “There is a big crisis at that level. It’s when female trainees go on maternity leave, start working part-time and gaps are created.”
Trusts will have to prove they can’t recruit from the EEA before looking further afield for doctors in specialties not on the list.
Consultant specialities remaining on the list include audiological medicine, GUM, haematology, microbiology and virology, neurology, nuclear medicine, O&G, occupational medicine and paediatric surgery. In psychiatry, the disciplines of forensic, general, old age and learning disabilities are also included.
Just last week Hospital Dr reported on record numbers of junior doctor vacancies following WTD implementation.
And, in September, we reported on how the bureaucracy surround the Medical Training Initiative was delaying the recruitment of overseas doctors and causing service chaos.
Read a BMA blog on the issue.
Read the full list of shortage occupations in the Tier 2 category.
Tags: Overseas recruitment
