London, United Kingdom (AHN) - Tighter immigration notwithstanding, the United Kingdom's National Health Service is being forced to recruit hundreds of physicians from India to overcome a shortage of junior doctors in the country.

Due to strict immigration rules, which were made even stricter after the Conservative-Liberal Democrat Coalition took charge last month, a significant number of overseas medical professionals had to leave the UK. This, combined with European regulations on doctors' working hours and childcare breaks, has led to dozens of hospitals facing a severe deficit in the number of doctors.

A range of specialties like obstetrics, gynecology, pediatrics, accident and emergency are facing a shortage of junior doctors and are struggling to fill the vacancies. The situation has led many in the medical fraternity to believe that the government might have "pulled the plug on overseas recruitment far too quickly."

Medical training schools across the UK are busy recruiting manpower from India and are expected to continue this recruitment drive over the coming year. The major schools that are looking to fill up their vacancies out of India are from Wales, Severn, the West Midlands and Northern Ireland.

Reports suggest that it is the hospitals in major cities that are facing the shortage crunch the most after the European Working Time Directive was introduced into the NHS in August 2009. Moreover, British doctors were not willing to serve in the shortage areas while the Indian doctors were ready to do that and even work for longer hours.

The problem could have been solved earlier if the UK Department of Health (DoH) had had a free hand in handling fulfillment of vacancies. With the UK Home Office not ready to concede on its current two-year limit for overseas doctors, the shortage has remained unresolved.

The British Association of Physicians of Indian Origin (BAPIO) had agreed to help with the DoH's recruitment drive but it wanted the two-year limit increased to three and four years, which the Home Office would not agree to.

The DoH is reportedly going ahead with its recruitment drive in India at least. In order to plug the shortage of medicos in the country, UK health officials held interviews of potential candidates in Kolkata last week. The doctors, if selected, will join duty by August.

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