The Hindu : Front Page : U.K. to review doctors’ recruitment procedures

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Thursday, Jul 05, 2007
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U.K. to review doctors’ recruitment procedures

Hasan Suroor

Background checks on highly skilled migrants to be expanded

LONDON: In the first sign of a crackdown on overseas doctors, Prime Minister Gordon Brown on Wednesday ordered a review of recruitment procedures by the National Health Service (NHS). Police confirmed that last week’s attempted bombings in London and Glasgow were hatched and executed by foreign doctors and medical students.

Mr. Brown told the Commons that the Government would ask the NHS to “expand” background checks on highly-skilled migrants before considering them for jobs.

His remarks followed calls for tougher vetting procedures for foreign doctors even as the NHS Employers, the body which represents NHS hospitals, insisted that the current verification process was already vigorous enough. There was also concern that singling out only immigrant doctors for extra checks could be regarded discriminatory.

A spokesman for Indian doctors told The Hindu that the Prime Minister’s announcement was “worrying.”

“We have to wait and study its implications but it seems worrying,” Ramesh Mehta, president of the British Association of Physicians of Indian Origin, said.

There were fears that last week’s events could make it harder for foreign doctors to find jobs. “Yes, there is a great deal of worry,” Dr. Mehta said.

However, he hoped that dust would settle down as people realised the contribution of foreign doctors to the NHS.

The move towards a tougher recruitment process for overseas doctors is bad news for the Indian doctors who are fighting against controversial new immigration rules requiring doctors from outside the European Union to obtain a work permit.There are an estimated 80,000 overseas doctors in Britain and more than 27,000 are from India.

Probe in final phase

The investigation into the terror plot moved into its final phase amid claims that the two men who drove a flaming jeep into the Glasgow international airport terminal last Saturday had also planted the “car bombs” in London two days before. It is suspected that after planting the bombs they returned to Glasgow and launched the attack on the airport.

They have been identified as Bilal Abdullah, an Iraqi national, who worked at Scotland’s Royal Alexandria Hospital; and Khalil Ahmed, also a doctor at the same hospital. He suffered serious burns and is reported to be fighting for his life. His nationality has not been established, though at the time of the airport attack eyewitness described him as “Asian- looking.”

Of the eight persons who have been arrested, five are from West Asia, and there are three Indians, two of whom were detained in Australia. A third, Sabeel Ahmed (26), from Karnataka, was arrested in Liverpool.

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