The NHS must shift away from hiring so many foreign doctors, a key report has warned.
A review of training headed by England’s chief medical officer Sir Chris Whitty found that ‘competition’ meant British graduates were struggling to get posts.
Concerns have been raised that that many UK-taught resident doctors – formerly known as junior doctors – are being trapped in ‘training bottlenecks’.
As a result they are prevented from getting jobs, despite a national shortage of medics, or forced to take roles at lower levels.
The report by Professor Whitty and NHS England’s former medical director Sir Stephen Powis cautioned that the health service cannot ‘shy away’ from tackling the problem.
‘Medicine is an international profession. The UK is fortunate to have exceptional internationally trained graduates and the NHS will always benefit from their experience,’ the review said.
‘However, getting the right balance between domestically trained graduates, international graduates with experience in the UK and new international graduates is an important issue of policy, and the recent major changes to these ratios have contributed to some of the bottlenecks in training.
‘We cannot shy away from addressing this issue, while supporting the excellent international graduates in the NHS providing patient care.’
The assessment – published at the end of last month – said ‘bottlenecks at all points in training and development should be considered urgently’.
‘This will have to include consideration of the right ratio between new international graduate entrants to medicine in the UK and those who are already working and training in the NHS, taking into account the workforce need,’ it added.
Health Secretary Wes Streeting has previously admitted the NHS is ‘too reliant on pulling the immigration lever’.
Mr Streeting told the Telegraph in February that ‘millions of patients are grateful for the skilled and compassionate care they have received from staff from overseas’.
But he added: ‘There is no doubt that, in recent years, the NHS has become too reliant on pulling the immigration lever.
‘It has been forced to recruit from countries on the WHO red list, which have severe shortages of their own.
‘At the same time, straight-A students in this country have been locked out of medical school due to cuts to places.’
He said the Government was committed to ‘growing our own home-grown talent, and giving opportunities to more people across the country to join our NHS’.
