Asylum-seeking GPs able to work in NHS following immigration rule change

Doctors, nurses and other healthcare professionals waiting for asylum in the UK will now be able to work in the NHS, following a change in immigration rules from the Home Office.

The change in rules, which came into force last week (26 March), will affect asylum-seeking qualified medical staff who have waited 12 or more months for a decision on their initial claim.

Previously, the Home Office’s policy only allowed asylum seekers to work in occupations on the Immigration Salary List, which excluded most healthcare professions.

However, following a High Court challenge from two specialist doctors who had the relevant qualifications to practise in the NHS but were prevented from doing so, the ban has been lifted, the Guardian reported.

The two doctors – a radiologist and neuro-rehabilitation specialist – challenged the previous permission-to-work policy, which limited the areas in which they could take up jobs if they had waited for more than 12 months for an initial decision on their asylum claim. 

In December, the High Court hearing was adjourned after the home secretary said she would carry out a review into the policy.

It has now been amended so that asylum seekers who have waited more than year for a decision on their initial claim will be able to work in graduate-level NHS jobs if they have the relevant qualifications, the Home Office confirmed to Pulse.

Stephanie Harrison KC, Garden Court Chambers, who represented the two doctors who brought the challenge to the High Court said: ‘Our clients were highly qualified doctors who wished to provide their skills to NHS patients in need. One of our clients was able to take up a role that had remained unfilled for over a year. 

‘This is an important step but the full removal of restrictions is still recommended. It is important that policy is guided by reason and compassion, recognising both the contribution individuals can make and the wider needs of society.’

Both doctors had been supported to be work-ready by NHS-funded organisation REACHE – Refugee and Asylum Seekers Centre for Healthcare Professionals Education. 

REACHE works with displaced clinicians to prepare them for working in the NHS, offering specialist language, clinical and acculturation training, as well as pastoral support to allow them to secure regulatory registration. 

Dr Aisha Awan, GP, director of REACHE and clinical lecturer at the University of Manchester said: ‘As we continue to witness increasing displacement of people by conflict and global events, we must ethically address that doctors, nurses and health professionals becoming deskilled is a huge loss to humanity. 

‘Alongside being economically counterproductive, undermining NHS workforce capacity and negatively impacting mental health and integration.

‘At a time of increasingly hostile rhetoric around migration, it’s been important to show the impressively positive impacts of this programme on the NHS and patients. 

‘I’m immensely proud to be part of our university which supports this sort of positive and impactful change. Our success demonstrates how evidence, persistence and coalition-building can influence systems, no matter how big the resistance to change.’

Commenting on the changes, NHS Employers interim chief executive Dean Royles told Pulse: ‘When qualified healthcare professionals arrive in the UK fleeing war, persecution and seeking safety they have a huge uphill struggle to get to a place where they can once again work as a doctor, dentist or whatever their chosen profession.

‘The dedication of those championing refugee and asylum seeking health professionals has delivered this important change. Ideally, we need to get to a place where applications are processed more quickly so we do not have people waiting 12 months or more before they receive an outcome.

‘In the meantime, the importance of being able to work after 12 months so as not to further lose skills and confidence is absolutely critical for the individuals affected, as it is for NHS employers looking to employ skilled and experienced healthcare professionals.’