Medical immigration: the elephant in the room

doi:10.1136/bmj.39330.686840.AD

BMJ 2007;335:593-595 (22 September), doi:10.1136/bmj.39330.686840.AD

Analysis

Medical immigration: the elephant in the room

Graham Winyard, retired postgraduate dean

Winchester SO23 9TE

gwinyard@doctors.org.uk

The threat of unemployment among UK graduates this year is beingblamed on the new computerised recruitment system. But, arguesGraham Winyard, the real problem is government policy on medicalimmigration

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

The effects of the collapse of the United Kingdom's electronicrecruitment and selection system for junior doctors, the MedicalTraining Applications Service (MTAS), have shaken British medicine.¹Anxiety has been raised about the careers of thousands of youngdoctors along with questions about the fitness for purpose ofsome of medicine's key institutions.² The government has orderedan independent review not only of the recruitment system butof the whole of the new pattern of postgraduate education, ModernisingMedical Careers,³ and it is understandable that the system isbeing blamed for all current difficulties.

The reality, in respect of medical unemployment, is more complicatedand more worrying. Even if MTAS had worked perfectly, we wouldhave still faced major problems with medical unemployment becauseof the government's muddled approach to managing medical immigration.This has created a large surplus of applicants over availabletraining places, making disappointment for thousands inevitable.. . . [Full text of this article]

Add to CiteULike CiteULike Add to Complore Complore Add to Connotea Connotea Add to Del.icio.us Del.icio.us Add to Digg Digg Add to Reddit Reddit Add to StumbleUpon StumbleUpon Add to Technorati Technorati What's this?

Relevant Articles

Does it matter that medical graduates don’t get jobs as doctors? Yes: Graham Winyard
BMJ 2008 336: 990. [Extract] [Full Text] [PDF]

Modernising Medical Careers laid bare: Tony Delamothe
BMJ 2007 335: 733-734. [Extract] [Full Text] [PDF]

The real elephant in the room: Mohammad Farhad Peerally
BMJ 2007 335: 684. [Extract] [Full Text] [PDF]

Training our doctors: Fiona Godlee
BMJ 2007 335: 0. [Extract] [Full Text]

Junior doctors will find jobs—as long as they are flexible, says health department: Lynn Eaton
BMJ 2007 335: 582. [Extract] [Full Text] [PDF]

Centralised application services for specialist training: Tony Delamothe
BMJ 2007 334: 1285-1286. [Extract] [Full Text] [PDF]

Selection for specialist training: what can we learn from other countries?: Tony Jefferis
BMJ 2007 334: 1302-1304. [Extract] [Full Text] [PDF]

The royal colleges must up their game—or die: Nigel Hawkes
BMJ 2007 334: 724. [Extract] [Full Text] [PDF]

This article has been cited by other articles:

Winyard, G. (2008). Does it matter that medical graduates don't get jobs as doctors? Yes. BMJ 336: 990-990 [Full text]
Delamothe, T. (2007). Modernising Medical Careers laid bare. BMJ 335: 733-734 [Full text]
Zimbron, J. (2007). Full house. BMJ 335: 684-684 [Full text]
Peerally, M. F. (2007). The real elephant in the room. BMJ 335: 684-684 [Full text]

Rapid Responses:

Read all Rapid Responses

Moving the goalposts during the match. Is this the end of meritocracy?: Jyothis T George
bmj.com, 22 Sep 2007 [Full text]
Full House: Jorge Zimbron
bmj.com, 22 Sep 2007 [Full text]
Medical Immigration: not a sensitive matter: Sudheer T Lankappa
bmj.com, 23 Sep 2007 [Full text]
Look within ourselves.....: Mayank Vashishtha, et al.
bmj.com, 23 Sep 2007 [Full text]
The Real Elephant in the Room: Joydeep Grover
bmj.com, 23 Sep 2007 [Full text]
The elephant spotted at last!: Meena Shankar, et al.
bmj.com, 23 Sep 2007 [Full text]
Silver Lining: Andrew Montgomery
bmj.com, 24 Sep 2007 [Full text]
The real elephant in the room: Mohammad Farhad Peerally
bmj.com, 24 Sep 2007 [Full text]
Certainly no Dumbo: Milan M Thomas
bmj.com, 24 Sep 2007 [Full text]
IMGs had illegal rights to compete??: Lena Palaniyappan
bmj.com, 24 Sep 2007 [Full text]
Medical Immigration is self limiting: Stephen H Raymond
bmj.com, 24 Sep 2007 [Full text]
Wake up please BMA and medical students: edmund willis
bmj.com, 25 Sep 2007 [Full text]
Re: Wake up please BMA and medical students: Jay Ilangaratne
bmj.com, 26 Sep 2007 [Full text]
Re: Wake up please BMA and medical students: Mayank Vashishtha
bmj.com, 26 Sep 2007 [Full text]
I am better than you are: Jayaprakash Ayillath Gosalakkal
bmj.com, 26 Sep 2007 [Full text]
Howl!: David R Jarrett
bmj.com, 26 Sep 2007 [Full text]
Emigrate to Germany: Andre Lagrange
bmj.com, 26 Sep 2007 [Full text]
A few solutions for the immigration issue: Arun Natarajan
bmj.com, 27 Sep 2007 [Full text]
Refugee Doctors - The Elephant in the Room - Should Postgraduate training places be reserved for UK Graduates?: Maeve Keaney
bmj.com, 28 Sep 2007 [Full text]
We got to find an amicable solution: Umesh Prabhu
bmj.com, 29 Sep 2007 [Full text]
Re: We got to find an amicable solution: Jay Ilangaratne
bmj.com, 2 Oct 2007 [Full text]
Competition is good for patients: Martin Zinkler
bmj.com, 2 Oct 2007 [Full text]
some overseas medical schools are inferior: edmund willis
bmj.com, 10 Oct 2007 [Full text]
Re: some overseas medical schools are inferior: anand fernandes
bmj.com, 15 Oct 2007 [Full text]
A reasonable concern: Madhukar Kumar
bmj.com, 16 Oct 2007 [Full text]