Professor Graham Winyard says hundreds of medical graduates are unemployed because too many posts go to doctors from overseas
Posted on 09/21/2007 12:39:55 AM PDT by Stoat
Professor Graham Winyard says hundreds of medical graduates are unemployed because too many posts go to doctors from overseas
Hundreds of medical graduates are unemployed because too many posts go to doctors from overseas, it is claimed today.
Professor Graham Winyard blames the Government's "muddled approach to managing medical immigration".
Writing in the British Medical Journal, Professor Winyard said: "This has created a large surplus of applicants over available training places, making disappointment for thousands inevitable."
The drive to bring in overseas doctors began because medical schools were failing to provide enough graduates for the NHS. In 1997, a Government committee advocated a policy aim of being able to rely largely on UK doctors, and called for an expansion of medical school places.
This means the number of graduate doctors is expected to rise by 40 per cent to 7,000 in 2010.
Professor Winyard said the aims of the committee could not be realised because it is illegal to discriminate against doctors on the basis of the country in which they graduated.
Doctors from across Europe also meet the criteria for seeking a job in Britain through the highly skilled migrant programme, he said.
"Investing heavily in expanding our medical schools makes little sense if we cannot enable the extra graduates to pursue a career in medicine," he added.
Professor Winyard proposed a system where overseas graduates were considered for jobs only after UK and European graduates.
The Health Department said NHS patients should have access to the best doctors possible "no matter where they trained".
Hey, let’s ask all these European doctors to immigrate to the U.S. Let all the muskie doctors stay in the U.K.
Brilliant!!!
Meanwhile it takes 6 weeks to see a doctor in Britain.
oh no..not hillarycare.
haha if that gets started the medcare in the deep south will be bandaid, a stanback and a shot of tequila..and you will have to be ushered through a line of people begging for handouts to get it
well...actually the tequila is a good cure for a lot of stuff.
The full text of the article is available only by subscription.
Medical immigration the elephant in the room -- Winyard 335 (7620) 593 -- BMJ
Winchester SO23 9TE
The threat of unemployment among UK graduates this year is being blamed on the new computerised recruitment system. But, argues Graham Winyard, the real problem is government policy on medical immigration
The effects of the collapse of the United Kingdom's electronic recruitment and selection system for junior doctors, the Medical Training Applications Service (MTAS), have shaken British medicine.1 Anxiety has been raised about the careers of thousands of young doctors along with questions about the fitness for purpose of some of medicine's key institutions.2 The government has ordered an independent review not only of the recruitment system but of the whole of the new pattern of postgraduate education, Modernising Medical Careers,3 and it is understandable that the system is being blamed for all current difficulties.
The reality, in respect of medical unemployment, is more complicated and more worrying. Even if MTAS had worked perfectly, we would have still faced major problems with medical unemployment because of the government's muddled approach to managing medical immigration. This has created a large surplus of applicants over available training places, making disappointment for thousands inevitable.
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making disappointment for thousands inevitable.
I would suggest that we are witnessing an example of British Understatement....when it takes a minimum of ten years of grueling, sleepless work and a quarter million dollars (before we even start talking about interest on student loans) to become a doctor, going through that process and then being unable to work in the manner that you have been trained exclusively as a result of Government mismanagement would be far more than a "disappointment".
>>>Professor Winyard said the aims of the committee could not be realised because it is illegal to discriminate against doctors on the basis of the country in which they graduated. <<<
Not at all true here in the US. There’s a reason that you find Pakistani doctors practicing family medicine in the most rural parts of Alabama, Wyoming, or Kansas. And it has nothing to do with those being hotspots for immigrants.
“”Meanwhile it takes 6 weeks to see a doctor in Britain.””
Really? I phoned for a doctor’s appointment yesterday afternoon.
I’m being seen today at 1.00 p.m.
And it’s free.
If they really do have unemployed doctors in Britain, it’s not because of that. It’s because they don’t allow the markets to work.
Agreed, it doesn’t take that long to see a doctor in Britain. Though - its not free you know. Half of our VAT receipts go to fund the NHS.
‘Agreed, it doesn’t take that long to see a doctor in Britain. Though - its not free you know. Half of our VAT receipts go to fund the NHS.’
I was about to say the same. I must admit I get excellent service from my doctor, usually the same day or next day at the latest, but it is only ‘free’ at the point of delivery, you certainly pay for it ultimately, if you pay taxes.
An American friend told me he is forced to pay 1.45% of his salary to medicare (IIRC) and the employer has to give another 1.45% but he has medical insurance so never gets to use medicare, only the people who do not pay taxes use it. Is this right? Do working Americans have to pay for medical care they don’t use or have I misunderstood?
‘If they really do have unemployed doctors in Britain, it’s not because of that. It’s because they don’t allow the markets to work.’
They aren’t really unemployed - it’s just that the NHS doesn’t have a space for them. There is a large private health sector in the UK they can go and work for.
Free, huh?
What do you call all those taxes, then?
So nice of you to join today.
Enjoy your stay... while it lasts. It won’t be long.
You have it close. Working Americans pay 1.45% (and the employer matches 1.45%) to fund Medicare, which is the health plan for older people (I think 65 and up). Money from regular income tax pays for Medicaid, which is the government health plan for poor people.
‘So nice of you to join today.
Enjoy your stay... while it lasts. It won’t be long.’
Freepers like you tried to bully me out two years ago because I don’t take everything at face value and am not afraid to play devils advocate.
They failed.
‘You have it close. Working Americans pay 1.45% (and the employer matches 1.45%) to fund Medicare, which is the health plan for older people (I think 65 and up). Money from regular income tax pays for Medicaid, which is the government health plan for poor people.’
Thank you for that - so they will benefit if they reach retirement age? That’s sounds a bit fairer! :)
Freepers like you tried to bully me out two years ago because I don’t take everything at face value and am not afraid to play devils advocate.There's no "bullying". As you may well know, FR is a private forum for people of conservative persuasion. Socialism is the enemy above all enemies to a free republic, and thus on Free Republic. Someone who signs up to tout "free" health care a la Hillary Clinton is not going to last very long. I don't make those rules. I'm just stating the obvious here.
Really? I phoned for a doctor’s appointment yesterday afternoon.
I’m being seen today at 1.00 p.m.
And it’s free.
Tell me about my friend who has had to wait a year for eye surgery and is going blind. And her niece in law who died on the sofa of pneumonia at age 34. You are dreaming.
Am I correct in understaning that all Americans have to join Medicare at age 65. That the insurers force it.
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