Please forgive me for offering an opinion – again – on this thread.


IMG’s are international medical graduates. The primary medical qualification of just over a third of these 260,000 doctors is from a country other than the UK ( around a tenth from India, 4% Pakistan, 2% each from South Africa, Ireland, and Nigeria, and so on ). Just over 10% are from the European Economic Area ( outside UK ).


It may well be – in some people’s ideal world - that the NHS is British, staffed entirely by healthcare workers trained in the UK. The reality is that our medical graduates don’t wish to work in certain specialties, nor can they be forced to do so. Paying agency doctors at extortionate rates is not a long term solution. Graduates from other countries are willing to take on these jobs. Of course a minority will prove to be inadequately or even fraudulently qualified. Others may have the communication skills and language abilities ( not always English, in our multicultural society ) required in such specialties . There are also a significant number of doctors from other countries who are highly skilled in their specialty and of great value to our NHS and / or universities.



The GMC is the independent regulator of the UK’s doctors. Its aim is to ensure proper standards in the practice of medicine. It does this by managing the entry to the medical register, which all doctors need to be eligible to work here. It sets educational standards for all UK doctors through our 32 medical schools. There are no two curricula which are the same across these medical schools. The GMC accepts the validity of them all. It also sets and tries to ensure acceptable standards in the foreign medical schools where IMG’s obtained their primary qualifications. It is responsible for postgraduate education and training in the UK, which must continue for the doctors’ working lives.


The GMC is of course not immune to criticism or errors, nor is it a quango limited to doctors. A small number of UK doctors do fall seriously short of the standards expected of them, and a few of these ( perhaps 1/3000 registered doctors ) are eventually struck off. Considering how costly it is to train doctors, and how hard it is to fill certain specialties, this is not a path to be undertaken lightly.


Neither the GMC nor any Government body is perfect, and IELTS is not necessarily the ideal – and certainly not the only - way to ensure good communication skills. Medical students are all taught – and doctors should continue to learn – a wide range of good communication skills.

It’s vital that these skills are assessed together with all other relevant qualifications, by the LOCAL appointments committee at the hospital, practice, or university where the doctor hopes to work. Such committees include doctors, managers, nurses, laboratory / other support staff, and members of the general public, in addition to regional and university specialists. Ideally the doctor is appointed for a provisional length of time, or does a locum, before definitive appointment. The GMC can’t possibly be involved directly in every UK appointment.



Our Filipino members may find this type of thread hard to understand – not because of poor communication – but because our NHS is the type of service they would so love to have. In the Philippines if you can’t afford treatment, the outcome is not good.