More patients could be treated in the UK if associate specialists' skills were recognised

Thousands of patients who are being sent abroad for surgery could be treated in their local hospital if the skills of staff and associate specialist doctors working throughout the NHS were properly recognised, the BMA's annual conference heard.

Mr Mohib Khan, chairman of the Staff and Associate Specialists Committee, said that the doctors he represents have been treated as an underclass, often bullied and harassed by colleagues and frustrated and demoralised by their lack of progression and recognition.

Despite years of experience the careers of many of the 12 500 specialist doctors in the United Kingdom …