Indian and other overseas doctors working in the United Kingdom will no longer be able to have their specialist medical training funded by the Government under a new plan to be unveiled soon.
A ministerial group is preparing a move to impose the ban on training posts on all foreign doctors from outside the European Union in a bid to prevent thousands of British medics from facing unemployment, The Sunday Telegraph reported.
"We need to do something quickly about this and restricting access to specialist medical training is an area where we think we can make a difference," an unnamed Government source was quoted as saying.
Foreign doctors account for half of all applicants for jobs, according to Government statistics.
Last year, the United Kingdom's Department of Health had issued guidance that foreign docs could only be considered for a training post if there was no suitable candidate from the country or the European Union.
However, the guidance was successfully challenged in court by the British Association of Physicians of Indian Origin, who claimed it was ‘unfairly discriminatory’.
Ministers are appealing against the court decision, but the appeal is not due to be heard until later this year.
In the long term, the Government is also considering to introduce charges for post-graduate training for overseas medics, according to the sources.
However, a DoH Spokesman told the British newspaper: "Any changes to the rules will only affect people applying in the future, not those already here. We are considering this issue, there is a Lords appeal soon, and we'll make further announcements in due course."
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