Medscape UK has published DAUK’s efforts to fix visa issues for overseas doctors in the NHS.
“International medical graduate (IMG) doctors are unable to take up offered jobs due to extended and unacceptable delays and red tape in obtaining visas for the right to work in the UK, as the NHS heads towards a particular difficult winter with the threat of high influenza and a backlog created by the COVID pandemic. The Doctor’s Associate UK (DAUK) has written the Home Secretary urging for these visas to be processed without delay.”
“The DAUK described how IMG doctors have reported a 3-4 month wait for visas, which “significantly impacts” their lives and ability to start working for the health service.
“These doctors have been offered jobs in the NHS and are unable to take up these jobs,” the doctor’s lobbying group pointed out, and added that this “shames Great Britain on a global stage”.
Dr Ellen Welch, co-chair DAUK said: “We have a cohort of doctors who actively want to stay and work within our health service, who cannot due to bureaucracy and are now struggling to make ends meet. This needs to be remedied without delay.”
Read the full report here.
