NHS anger as Indian doctors are denied visas

NHS bosses have attacked immigration rules after 100 Indian doctors were refused entry to Britain.

The row was triggered by the refusal to grant visas to the doctors, who had been recruited as part of a scheme in the North West that supplies junior practitioners to more than 30 NHS trusts.

NHS chiefs have now written to Jeremy Hunt, the Health Secretary, and Amber Rudd, the Home Secretary, asking them to investigate it urgently.

Jon Rouse, chief officer of the Greater Manchester Health and Social Care Partnership, said: “As we reach the end of a winter where the NHS has been stretched to its very limits… we find it almost impossible to understand how this decision can have been reached.”

Danny Mortimer, chief executive of NHS Employers, told the BBC he had heard of 400 cases of blocked visas since December. “We have examples of clinics being cancelled and delays in terms of patients receiving care,” he said. “It exacerbates pressures in what are relatively small medical teams.”

In February, NHS Improvement said that there were 100,000 vacancies across England’s 234 acute, ambulance and mental health trusts.

A Home Office spokesman said applications refused in over-subscribed months can be made again.