Abstract
The trials and tribulations of immigrant professionals such as international medical graduates (IMGs) to the UK have been a topic for discussion and debate over many years. Many challenges faced by immigrant doctors have been reviewed and reformed over time and many rules pertaining to the registration and induction of international doctors to UK practice has been modified to facilitate safe delivery of care in the UK National Health Service (NHS). The General Medical Council (GMC), NHS employers, and the UK Home Office contribute to a three-tier filtration sieve for selecting suitable IMGs who aspire to either education and training or pursue a career in the UK health and care sector.
 This article pertains to the cohort of IMGs, who have been cleared by immigration regulations to reside in the UK but have not been able to initiate a career or active employment in a medical profession. The process of GMC registration referred to and discussed in this article is based on GMC rules prior to Jan 2021. The perspective from which some of the attributes of the current system has been observed has shown it to be efficient but not uniform, robust but not considerate, thorough but not perfect. During the research for this article, we realised that there are many different opinions or conflicting views on this topic, which have all developed either from an individual or a group’s own experience in the UK. There are similarities and differences in opinions and thus to broaden the scope of the discussion, we report the results of a survey exploring where and how the IMGs (currently resident in the UK) are at the start of their careers in the UK.
Highlights
This article pertains to the cohort of international medical graduates (IMGs), who have been cleared by immigration regulations to reside in UK but have not been able to initiate a career or active employment as a medical profession
It is estimated that the skewed career structure of the National Health Service (NHS) may have stemmed from the 1930 withdrawal of General Medical Council recognition for Indian degrees
The changing visa restrictions put in place to correct this and the UK Home Office’s culture of unfavourable environment policy was designed to engineer additional hurdles and serve as a deterrent for IMGs to come to the UK even for short periods of experience
Summary
This article pertains to the cohort of IMGs, who have been cleared by immigration regulations to reside in UK but have not been able to initiate a career or active employment as a medical profession. The introduction of a mandatory dedicated induction program in the form of formal teaching sessions, a supervised shadowing period prior in the first job in the UK and assistance with preparation for the UK assessment systems before taking the PLAB examinations to address specific educational needs such as NHS structure and prevalent medico-legal practices, guidance and policies. Other measures such as buddying schemes with senior IMGs and educating NHS staff on different needs of IMGs should be considered
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