Many thanks for your email.
We need to draw on talent around the world to increase the numbers of GPs and improve capacity in primary care. This is one reason why the Home Office launched the Health and Care Visa in 2020, helping to make it easier, cheaper and quicker for health workers – including GPs – to be recruited. As such, the Government will not be amending the current policy on international medical graduates (IMGs) who have completed their GP training. However, IMGs are able to use the time between the end of their training and the end of their Visa to apply for work. IMGs are also eligible for the skilled worker route, including the Health and Care Visa.
There are already a number of requirements in place for GPs from overseas to be able to work in general practice in the UK. Applicants need to be registered and licensed to practise with the General Medical Council (GMC), demonstrate proficiency in English and obtain a Skilled (Health) Workers Visa or have an “indefinite leave to remain” to be able to work in the UK. Their length of service will partly depend on the applicant’s Visa status and employment status after training.
Please be assured that the Home Office and the Department of Health and Social Care are working together to encourage more GP surgeries to become approved Home Office approved sponsors, helping more international medical graduates to be retained as GPs.
Thank you again for contacting me.
8 September 2022