“We have trained doctors in this country who are ready and willing to help combat the pandemic but unable to work due to the Home Office not doing its job and supplying appropriate documentation,” he continued.
“Meanwhile promises made by the prime minister and the cabinet regarding refunding the immigration health surcharge to NHS staff continue to remain unfulfilled. How can the NHS attract the best and brightest to the UK if the world sees a government unable to fulfil straightforward promises?
“Unfortunately, the immigration rhetoric and policies of the recent past has led to many of our valued colleagues feeling crestfallen, unappreciated, and exploited. This country must reward those that come to its aid in its time of greatest need.”
Dr Dolin Bhagawati, DAUK Editorial Lead
Qualified doctors in the UK are being blocked from working due to Home Office delays, at a time when the NHS is under increasing pressure due to surging numbers of coronavirus cases.
Home secretary Priti Patel has been urged to act after it emerged delays in issuing Biometric Residence Permits (BRP), which prove a visa holder’s right to work in the UK, are preventing frontline doctors from working in hospitals to combat the pandemic.
In one case, a respiratory specialist doctor with an approved visa who is currently in Leicester, a city hit particularly hard by Covid-19, is unable to start work due to an ongoing delay providing him with a BRP.
Despite multiple contacts by email and telephone as well as intervention by his MP, Dr Ahmad Ussaid is unable to start work, depriving him of an income and the NHS of a skilled doctor when the health service is being increasingly stretched.
Boris Johnson removed the NHS migrant surcharge – a £624-a-year fee which is levied on most UK via applications – for health and care workers in May after he came under intense pressure over the “immorality” of the policy. Staff were told they could apply for reimbursements of the charge backdated to March 2020.
However, seven months later, many doctors are still waiting for their refunds and have been given no clear reason for the delay, while others have been refused as they have paid from bank accounts from their country of origin which have been closed on arrival to the UK, according to DAUK.
A letter to Ms Patel from Doctors’ Association UK (DAUK) on Wednesday stated that delays in providing BRPs were preventing frontline doctors from working in NHS hospitals to combat the pandemic due to a “bureaucratic hindrance”, depriving the health service of skilled doctors “when the country needs them most”.
It called for a fast-track system to be introduced to ensure BRPs are issued without delay for all approved visas for international medical graduates, to make sure the NHS has the “highest number of trained personnel on the frontline during the escalating pandemic”.
The letter also raises concern about delays in refunding the immigration health surcharge, which DAUK said “smacked of reluctance” to implement the government pledge.
“It is known that Bame NHS staff are at increased risk of dying from Covid-19 yet they are still stepping up to treat the sick during this time of emergency,” states the letter.
“If these staff members are willing to step forward and help the nation, the nation must respond in kind. Failure to do so is simply not in keeping with accepted British values.”
Dr Dolin Bhagawati, a neurosurgeon working in London and editorial lead for DAUK, said the “prolonged” and ongoing bureaucratic delays were “simply unconscionable”.
“We have trained doctors in this country who are ready and willing to help combat the pandemic but unable to work due to the Home Office not doing its job and supplying appropriate documentation,” he continued.
“Meanwhile promises made by the prime minister and the cabinet regarding refunding the immigration health surcharge to NHS staff continue to remain unfulfilled. How can the NHS attract the best and brightest to the UK if the world sees a government unable to fulfil straightforward promises?
“Unfortunately, the immigration rhetoric and policies of the recent past has led to many of our valued colleagues feeling crestfallen, unappreciated, and exploited. This country must reward those that come to its aid in its time of greatest need.”
Read the full article here.
