Yorkshire GP: Newly qualified GPs threatened with deportation
A House of Commons health and social care committee has been hearing evidence
Newly qualified GPs are receiving letters threatening them with deportation, a Yorkshire GP told MPs.
New doctors are “literally going from celebrating the fact that they’ve become a GP to receiving letters threatening them with deportation”, according to Dr Margaret Ikpoh, a GP Partner at Holderness Health.
Dr Ikpoh, who is also a vice-chair of the Royal College of GPs (RCGP), was giving evidence to a House of Commons health and social care committee on the future of general practice.
Dr Ikpoh said it was a particular problem in more deprived areas of the north, such as Hull, as up to 70 per cent of new GPs tend to be from outside the UK in such areas.
Home Office rules state foreign doctors must work for at least five years before they can apply for indefinite leave to remain, but GPs usually finish their training after three years, leaving a two-year gap during which they have to secure sponsorship if they want to stay in the country when their visas run out.
Dr Ikpoh said: “That can’t be right. It has to change and we have to value them better – because if we don’t we’ll lose them, and some are already going to places where they feel that they are more valued, and Canada is on the top of the list. I think it’s an easy win for all of us to try and sort out.”
The Government spends around £50,000 on training a GP, with further financial incentives given to those who train in deprived areas.
The RCGP is calling for international medical graduates who qualify as GPs in the UK to be given automatic indefinite leave to remain.
Professor Mike Holmes, a GP Partner at Haxby Group, a leading provider of GP services in York, Hull and Scarborough, said pressure was increasing on services across his patch.
“We’ve seen workload go up,” he said. “The number of consultations now is much greater than they were even just two years ago pre-pandemic. We’re seeing reduced resources, financial resources, and that’s magnified in some of our more deprived areas.
“We need to increase the number of GPs, improve the resources, manage the workload – at the same time as we’re struggling with workforce and workload, the population is increasing.”
Dr Ikpoh said areas like Hull now had just one GP per 2,500 patients, which is lower than the national average.
Prof Holmes said the profession needed more people from deprived areas to train in medicine where they live because evidence shows that 30 per cent of foreign doctors will go back to practice where they grew up.