Indian doctors face higher lay-off threat in Britain

Medical practitioners trained in India and working in Britain are four times more likely to be laid off than the ones trained locally, statistics reveal.

Figures released by the General Medical Council (GMC) show that between 2008 and 2013, about one in 1,000 British-trained doctors were struck off, compared to one in 250 of those trained in India and one in 350 of those trained in Pakistan.

Currently, about a third of the doctors working in Britain have received their training abroad. But 75 per cent of those who were struck off the medical register in 2013 were trained overseas.

The disclosure made Monday night caused concern about the scrutiny of those who receive their training abroad, and follow a recent decision to relax rules governing overseas medical recruitment.

Doctors from overseas now make up one in three medics working in Britain.

In total, 458 doctors have been barred from working in the UK in the past five years.

The country with the largest number of doctors removed from the UK register is India, followed by Pakistan, Egypt and Nigeria.

The study emerged after British Association of Physicians of Indian Origin (BAPIO) brought a high court action against the GMC claiming it discriminated against overseas doctors who wanted to become GPs, which the judge ruled against.

BAPIO said the new figures have shown Indian doctors are discriminated against at the GMC.

Around 30,000 doctors from India and Pakistan are currently licensed to work in Britain, along with 150,000 doctors who trained in this country, and 50,000 from other countries.