India has said it will write to Britain to treat NRI doctors 'fairly and equally' and assured the medicos who could be affected by new immigration rules that they would be provided assistance in finding appropriate jobs if they return to the country of their origin.
LONDON: India has said it will write to Britain to treat NRI doctors 'fairly and equally' and assured the medicos who could be affected by new immigration rules that they would be provided assistance in finding appropriate jobs if they return to the country of their origin.
Union Health Minister Anbumani Ramadoss told representatives of the British Association of Physicians of Indian Origin (BAPIO) that he would personally write to British Health Secretary Patricia Hewitt asking her 'to ensure that Indian doctors are treated fairly and equally.'
Commending BAPIO's work for doctors of Indian origin in the UK, Ramdoss, himself a doctor, assured the organization that 'Government of India will provide assistance in finding appropriate jobs for doctors who want to return to India.'
He also promised to work on ensuring their British qualifications and training get proper recognition.
"We are very happy to meet the minister and were impressed with his understanding of the issues facing Indian doctors in the UK.
BAPIO is grateful for all the Government of India is doing to help the affected doctors," Dr Ramesh Mehta, the President of BAPIO, said in a statement.
Dr Raman Lakshman, Vice Chair for Policy, said, "We are confident this meeting has set in motion the beginnings of a close and fruitful relationship between BAPIO and the Government of India."
According to Mehta, the meeting was held on Monday when Ramadoss was on a transit halt on his return journey from New York to New Delhi.
During the meeting, Mehta updated the minister about the progress in the legal case of Indian doctors affected by the immigration rules announced in April 2006.
"The Minister expressed concern on the way Indian doctors were being treated and said this may affect several medical research collaborations between the two countries," he said.
If the new immigration rules that came into force in April 2006 are applied for job applications, there would be practically two shortlists, one of UK and EU citizens and another pile of Indian and other overseas doctors.
The second list would only be considered for jobs that are not filled using doctors in the first list.
This would mean that doctors from overseas who would have made career progress if selection had occurred purely on merit now may be left with no jobs, devastated career plans and for many with little option but to leave UK.
According to BAPIO, about 16,000 international medical graduates, mostly Indians, would be affected and since they have completed varying amounts of training but not achieved postgraduate certification they would have to leave UK halfway through their career.
This is especially unfair for those doctors who are on the HSMP (Highly Skilled Migrant Programme) visa as they have committed to the British government to migrate to the UK and have right to every expectation that they should be treated on par with the UK and EU citizens, the organisation says.
BAPIO filed for a judicial review of the process leading to the changes and while the judge agreed with BAPIO on two of the three counts he did not believe this was adequate to quash the changes.
BAPIO has taken the case to the appeals court and are waiting for a date for the hearing. In the meantime, UK Health Department has not applied the new rules to the current recruitment process to almost 20,000 jobs in the UK.
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