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 DOCTORS OUT OF DANGER
Thanks to sustained pressure from BAPIO, nearly 13,000 Indian doctors in the UK can live and work without the constant fear of expulsion.
EMPIRE BUREAU
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Thousands of Indian doctors working in the UK had for long lived with the scalpel constantly dangling over their heads. That’s because the department of health had introduced a clause that set the visa validity date on August 1, 2007 for international medical graduates—of whom a large number are Indians—applying for trainee posts in the National Health Service during the first round of recruitment in 2007.
For over 13,000 Indian doctors, it meant a dishonourable discharge and perhaps a quick exit out of a country where they had spent considerable time and funds. The clause would have excluded these doctors from the job interview and appointment process if their Highly Skilled Migration Programme (HSMP) visas were not current on and extended beyond August 1, 2007. For most, it meant shattered dreams and a hopeless situation.
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Despite the large number of vacancies in NHS, Indian doctors in the UK work in manual jobs and few are lucky to get even clinical attachment |
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The subject of HSMP visas has been controversial of late, mainly due to changes to requirements that affect those applying for HSMP extensions as well as new applicants. If someone applying for an extension cannot meet the new points-based requirements, they must leave the country after their visa expires.
But then suddenly hope appeared over the horizon. On March 8, the doctors won a significant legal battle against the British Government. In a victory for the British Association of Physicians of Indian Origin (BAPIO), the department of health conceded to its demand to withdraw the clause.
On February 23, the department of health had agreed to keep the new discriminatory immigration rules in abeyance. But it later introduced the new visa clause. The high court was due to hear the BAPIO’s application seeking permission for a judicial review of the injunction on the rules affecting international medical graduates under HSMP.
Soon after the BAPIO was informed by the counsel that the secretary of state was ready to concede its demand, it agreed to withdraw its case “since the secretary of state gave an undertaking to the court that this clause will be removed”. Dr Ramesh Mehta, president, BAPIO, said, “For the first time a clear message has been sent out that promises made to international medical graduates must be kept. HSMP doctors were allowed in to make the UK their home and they must be treated at par with UK and EU nationals.”
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April 2007
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