Indian docs in UK will know their fate today

LONDON: The future of 12,000 Indian doctors working in the United Kingdom will become clear today when the results of the first round of recruitment for 21,000 jobs in the National Health Service are announced by Britain’s department of health.

Most of the Indian doctors fear that they will be disqualified for employment because of the new immigration laws and may have to join 5,000 of their colleagues, who have already packed their bags and returned home.

A temporary reprieve was, however, announced by the department of health: “Doctors with limited leave to enter or remain in the UK in immigration categories that allow them to work will be considered for short-listing in round 1 if their leave is current at August 1.”

The guideline has put in abeyance the new immigration rules announced in April 2006, under which European Union candidates receive priority in job selection over non-EU candidates.

The new rules have meant that 16,000 doctors from South Asia, working for the National Health Service, the largest medical employer in the UK, have no option but to go home. The majority of the affected doctors are from India.

The British Association of Physicians of Indian Origin welcomed the decision to give the doctors a temporary reprieve and to allow them to be considered for the first round of NHS jobs.