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Britain’s National Health Service (NHS) is pushing ahead with a plan to quickly hire 2,000 doctors from India to address chronic staff shortages in the UK healthcare system.
India’s largest doctors’ organization, the Indian Medical Association (IMA), has refused to take part in a recruitment drive by Britain’s National Health Service (NHS) aimed at attracting skilled doctors from India.
The report states that the NHS is rapidly recruiting 2,000 doctors from India to address the severe shortage of medical professionals in the UK, and has established training centers in several Indian cities to provide them with postgraduate training.
After completing their training, the doctors will be posted to hospitals across the UK. Additionally, they will be exempted from the Professional and Linguistic Assessment Board (PLAB) examination, which is a mandatory requirement to practice in the country.
However, the IMA, which represents more than 400,000 Indian medical professionals, refused to participate in the initiative, citing concerns that immigration of skilled doctors could disrupt the country’s healthcare system.
IMA National President Dr RV Asokan told an Indian news channel, news18, The apex body “is not interested in sending doctors abroad as it is against national interest and will weaken India’s healthcare system.”
“The NHS needs trained and highly skilled senior doctors. We politely declined their offer.
“We would be interested if the NHS could source young graduates from India. Their needs do not match our needs,” he added.
Regarding the state of India’s healthcare system, Dr. Asokan highlighted the alarming unemployment rate among recent MBBS graduates in the country and noted that IMA is committed to advocating for opportunities for young medical graduates.
According to his calculations, India’s 706 medical colleges are expected to have more than 1 million unemployed doctors in the next decade.
By comparison, in the UK, doctors trained overseas make up 25%-30% of its NHS medical team. The shortage of doctors in the UK is caused by many factors, including low salaries, high training costs, and burnout due to heavy workloads, and Brexit has further exacerbated the situation.
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