Prospective doctors have been forced to work at McDonald’s outlets and various garages in London even after qualifying the required tests, according to doctors at the conference. About 1,000 junior doctors from our State and about 20,000 from the country appear for the Professional Linguistic Assessment Board (Plab) test to earn eligibility for training and work permit in the UK every year, but most of them do not manage to find medical jobs.

Representative of Junior Doctors Association of the United Kingdom P. Raghu Ram says, “The problem is that the General Medical Council of the UK can only recruit 15,000 doctors, but, there are over 35,000 to 40,000 aspirants. Moreover, most Indian doctors spend time in libraries during their internship to qualify the Plab test. However, when they reach the UK they are found to be short of hands-on experience.” According to the figures available with the Bida, there are about 5,000 unemployed doctors in the UK and 70 per cent of them are Indians.

“I know a qualified doctor who is presently working at a McDonald’s outlet in London. He chooses to stay in Britain and do odd jobs rather than return to India,” said Dr Umesh Reddy who has been practicing medicine in Bury. President of National Board of Examinations under ministry of health and family welfare A. Rajasekharan minced no words criticizing the British government.

“The UK government is using Plab to make money by charging huge sums as examination fee from 40,000 Indians students annually. These students go abroad with stars in their eyes but they are made to face the harsh realities. We are in talks with the British government and we will bring about changes in the system,” he said Dr Gopalkrishna Reddy of Kurnool said, “After passing Plab, I was devastated because I did not get a job for over a year. I had to spend about £15,000 from my own pocket. then, I decided to come back to India and today I am running successful practice.” (Deccan Chronicle)