Indian Doctors Appeal Hearing Against Department Of Health

On 30th & 31st of October 2007 the Court of Appeal will hear the appeal by BAPIO, the British Association of Physicians of Indian Origin, against the decision of the High Court in Judicial Review proceedings concerning changes in Immigration Rules implemented by the Department of Health in the Royal Court of Justice. A three judge bench will be hearing the appeal.

BAPIO are seeking to overturn the High Court’s ruling that the Department of Health’s guidance that all doctors from outside the UK and EEA who do not have indefinite leave to remain in the UK should only be considered for training posts if there is no suitable UK or EEA graduate. This policy, which the Department of Health is once again seeking to implement for the recruitment process in January 2008, ignores the rights of doctors in the UK under the Highly Skilled Migrant Programme (HSMP) who are entitled to be treated on a par with UK and EEA applicants.

BAPIO are also challenging changes in the immigration rules, affecting trainee doctors, which were implemented without proper notice and consultation and which drastically affected doctors living in the UK who had left their homes and incurred considerable expenditure in the expectation that they would be given the opportunity to apply for posts to train in the UK.

Anthony Robinson, Solicitor at Linder Myers and representing the voluntary organisation comments: “As is widely acknowledged, the NHS has for many years relied upon the contribution of doctors from overseas, and in particular the Indian sub-continent, in order to provide a quality service in times of shortage of UK doctors. Now that more UK graduates are coming through, the Department of Health is trying to get round the rights of HSMP doctors who have already made the UK their home because it failed to plan ahead. This follows similar abrupt changes in the immigration rules that unfairly affected thousands of overseas doctors living in the UK, who having once been made welcome, now found themselves forced to leave the country without any proper warning.”

29 OCTOBER 2007
COLIN DEAN,
MARKTING EXECUTIVE
colin.dean@lindermyers.co.uk
0161 837 6853