Allow more overseas doctors to work in NHS, immigration committee advises

All doctors should be added to the UK’s shortage occupation list—the official list of jobs without enough UK resident workers to fill the vacancies—the Migration Advisory Committee has recommended.1

Doctors in certain grades and specialties are already included on the list, as are all nurses.2

If a post is on the shortage occupation list the employer can bypass the usual requirement to carry out a resident labour market test when employing a doctor from outside the European Economic Area and Switzerland.2 The applicant is also exempt from the requirement to earn a minimum of £35 000 (€39 700; $44 200) to be eligible for a visa.13

The committee, which …