Home »General News » Pakistan » New immigration laws: many Pakistani doctors in UK have to pack up for home

  • News Desk
  • Apr 5th, 2006
  • Comments Off on New immigration laws: many Pakistani doctors in UK have to pack up for home
A sizeable majority of Pakistani doctors, working in the United Kingdom, may have to return home after the changes in the immigration regulations in the United Kingdom for undergraduate and postgraduate doctors and dentists come into force from July.

According to Federal Bureau of Statistics, at the time of partition there were only 48 medical graduates and six specialist doctors in the country.

Today this figure exceeds 113,000. Of these, 40 percent of the doctors are working abroad, mostly in the United Kingdom, who would be badly hurt as they will not be allowed to carry on with their jobs without holding a work permit.

According to new regulations, any non-European doctor will not be allowed to be employed if the employer, National Health Service (NHS) Trusts, has an alternate from any European country.

Of the 18,000 specialised doctors presently available in the country, 13,747 hold postgraduate CPSP degrees. The CPSP's contribution thus is as high as 76 percent. Regrettably, however, 60 percent of these doctors are working abroad.

Besides having international collaboration with institutions of higher learning in medicine in the US, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Nepal and Singapore where the CPSP degrees are recognised, it also has collaboration arrangements with Royal College of Surgeons of England and Royal College of Obstetricians & Gynaecologists, London.

Similarly, the CPSP has agreements relating to the reciprocity of degrees with the Joint Committee on Higher Medical Training of UK. The Joint Council recognises the FCPS (UK) and MRCP as equivalent to Canadian, South African and Australian fellowships, Royal College of UK, Ireland, and Bangladesh College of Physicians and Surgeons, Dhaka.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2006


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