'Refugee' doctors need more help to get into the NHS, says BMA

The growing number of refugee and asylum-seeking doctors arriving in Britain need more support to help them get work in the NHS more quickly, according to the British Medical Association (BMA).

Figures out today show that the number of such refugee doctors listed with the BMA has topped 1,000 for the first time – nearly 10 times as many doctors on the BMA's database of refugee doctors than there were three years ago.

Yet the association has warned that separate figures, to be announced next week, will indicate that they would find work quicker if more was done to help them integrate. Many refugee doctors are still seeking work years after arriving in the UK, despite having been granted permission to stay, the association said.

It takes on average five years for refugee doctors in London to pass all the exams they need to practise, but those who have the support of programmes to help them integrate, for example through English lessons, progress to registration faster.

The list now contains 1,009 medically qualified refugees and asylum seekers in the UK, compared with 110 in May 2001. The database, which is reliant on doctors reporting their own successes, indicates that 69 have found employment. However, reliable information from project leaders around the country indicates that 160 refugee and asylum-seeking doctors are now working in the NHS.

Dr Edwin Borman, chair of the BMA's International Committee, said: "Doctors who pursue their vocation of helping patients despite poverty, discrimination and abuse, deserve our full support. Many bring with them years of experience and training. And yet, even when they have jumped though all the hoops, lived for years on benefits as low as £39 per week, they are prepared to start at the bottom in the NHS."

Dr Borman will present the information from the database at a showcase event for the Department of Health Refugee Health Professionals Steering Group next Monday.

(gmcg/sp)