UK doctors call for simplification of visa rules to stem GP shortage
The UK government must urgently streamline post-Brexit visa bureaucracy for overseas general practitioners seeking to work in the UK, to help address a chronic shortage of doctors, medical leaders have warned.
Since Brexit ended free movement of labour with the EU, the UK has relied on more non-EU foreign doctors. As a result 48 per cent of all current trainee GPs require visas, according to data from the British Medical Association.
Under current rules, individual GP practices must pay a fee of up to £1,500 to become a licensed sponsor of skilled migrant workers needing visas — a process that doctors’ groups said was more of a bureaucratic burden than a financial one.
A survey by the Royal College last year found that about 30 per cent of international trainees had considered not working as a GP in the NHS because of difficulties with the visa process.
This story originally appeared on: Financial Times - Author:Leke Oso Alabi
