The NHS is looking into hiring hundreds of doctors from India in a bid to solve the training and recruitment crisis engulfing the service.
Health Education England (HEE), which coordinates training within the NHS, has signed a memorandum of understanding with an Indian hospital chain, Apollo Hospitals, according to Pulse, the doctors' magazine.
The agreement will serve "as a starting point to exploring how both countries can benefit from the mutual exchange of ideas", says HEE.
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
However, Apollo Hospitals has said the deal will involve the exchange of clinical staff.
It comes at a time when the NHS is suffering a severe shortage of family doctors. Earlier this week, researchers warned that GP workloads had soared by 16 per cent in the last seven years.
HEE has committed to hiring 5,000 more GPs by 2020, but unions said the recruitment drive was a clear "admission of failure" by the government.
Dr Chaand Nagpaul, the chairman of the British Medical Association's GP committee, acknowledged that foreign doctors have made a valuable contribution to the NHS, but said the government's pledge to recruit extra GPs "is clearly collapsing into chaos".
The Department of Health, however, insists it is on track to meet its training target.
Senior doctors have also raised concerns that "parachuting" in foreign doctors without adequate assessments could put patient safety at risk.
"This is a most dangerous thing because these doctors are not trained to be GPs in the UK. Their training is entirely different," Dr Umesh Prabhu, a former chairman of the British International Doctors Association, told The Guardian.
Dr Maureen Baker, the chairwoman of the Royal College of GPs, dismissed these concerns, saying there would be no shortcuts.
"They would first have to undergo GP specialty training and pass our rigorous entrance assessment," she said. Applicants will also be subjected to a professional language test.
-
5 museum-grade cartoons about Trump's Smithsonian purgeCartoons Artists take on institutional rebranding, exhibit interpretation, and more
-
Settling the West Bank: a death knell for a Palestine state?In the Spotlight The reality on the ground is that the annexation of the West Bank is all but a done deal
-
Sudoku medium: August 23, 2025The Week's daily medium sudoku puzzle
-
How the care industry came to rely on migrant workersThe Explainer Government crackdown on recruiting workers abroad risks deepening care sector crisis, industry leaders warn
-
Could medics' misgivings spell the end of the assisted dying bill?Today's Big Question The Royal College of Psychiatrists has identified 'serious concerns' with the landmark bill – and MPs are taking notice
-
Washwood Heath: Birmingham's pioneering neighbourhood health serviceIn the Spotlight NHS England chair says there is a 'really good argument this is the model for the future'
-
The UK's first legal drug consumption roomThe Explainer 'Potentially transformative moment in UK drugs policy' as The Thistle opens in Glasgow
-
How can the UK solve the adult social care crisis?Today's Big Question New commission announced to turn our buckling care sector around: yet more delay or finally a way forward?
-
Should blood donors be paid?The Explainer Financial rewards would help fill NHS shortfall but bring risk of contamination and exploitation, WHO warns
-
UK gynaecological care crisis: why thousands of women are left in painThe Explainer Waiting times have tripled over the past decade thanks to lack of prioritisation or funding for women's health
-
A 'transformative' gene therapy for haemophilia BThe Explainer Costly treatment that could be 'truly life-changing' for patients with rare blood disorder gets funding boost
