The United Kingdom’s public funded healthcare body, NHS has been facing a severe doctor shortage as of late due to low wages and heavy workload. In year 2022, nearly 1,10,000 medical posts in the NHS were vacant. The situation is so dire that as per reports, people are forced to wait nearly a month for routine procedures.
Amidst the dire situation, the UK is looking to India for help. As per reports, nearly 2,000 doctors will join the NHS to plug the national health service shortage. The NHS will conduct postgraduate training for the first batch of doctors, who then will be deployed at hospitals in Britain after 6 to 12 months of training. These doctors will be exempted from the Professional and Linguistic Assessments Board (PLAB) examination upon completion of the training programme.
NHS is publically funded health system which was at one point lauded for its services to the public. It was founded in 1948 following World War 2, and was committed to treat the country’s patient and maintain their health at all costs. Now however, NHS faces an employment crisis with many doctors reluctant to work under them because of low wages, expensive training, and burnout due to heavy workload. Brexit has also exacerbated the issue, according to reports. NHS also suffered a similar issue in 2016, which was one of the worst years of its operations.
National Health Service, the UK’s publicly funded health care system, is driving the initiative to hire doctors from India. These doctors will undergo 6 to 12-month postgraduate training in India. They will be exempted from PLAB examination that is otherwise mandatory for practising in the country. It is important to note that currently, 25-30% of the NHS’ medical workforce consists of doctors trained overseas.