UK Indian doctors probed more

A new study by the University College London has added data to the discourse of doctors in the National Health Service trained in India and other non-EU countries being more likely to face inquiries based on complaints than their UK counterparts.

Doctors with Indian medical qualifications comprise the second largest cohort in the NHS, after those trained in the UK. The latest figures show there are 25,281 India-qualified doctors, accounting for 9% of doctors registered with the General Medical Council (GMC). The study looked at GMC’s fitness-to-practice (FTP) investigations initiated when complaints are made against doctors by patients, police or other stakeholders. The analysis covered the 1996-2013 period, when the number of Indian doctors almost doubled.

Henry Potts, co-author of the study published in BMC Medical Education, told HT: “Indiantrained doctors made up around 10% of doctors in the UK over this period, but contributed 22% of the FTP cases. They are on average about five times more likely than a UK-trained doctor to be assessed. This is lower than countries like Bangladesh, Egypt and Nigeria, but higher than Ireland and South Africa.”

Potts added that the high prevalence of India-trained doctors could be related in part to they being more likely to be men than UK-trained doctors: “Men are considerably more likely to get into such difficulties than female doctors.” The high number of FTP inquiries against Indian doctors has previously been countered with charges and examples of alleged institutional racism.