ANZ Doctors for the NHS
Let the NHS Recruit Australian & NZ Medical Specialists
The NHS faces a critical shortage of 7,000+ doctors and relies so heavily on importing specialists that, to facilitate recruitment, UK parliament has written laws requiring all EU specialists are recongised in the UK. However, the same rules prevent the NHS from recruiting some of the best trained doctors in the world from Australian and New Zealand. Even UK citizens who trained as doctors in the UK and have British families!
The NHS needs 7,000+ doctors but UK rules prevent highly qualified Australian & NZ specialists from working here—even UK citizens with British families.
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Our petition to Parliament demands that the UK let the NHS recruit Australian and New Zealand specialists.
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Read Our Open Letter
Signed by over 100 medical specialists, and growing!
To the UK Secretary for Health and Social Care
Dear Mr Wes Streeting,
The NHS faces a critical shortage of 7,000+ specialist doctors, yet current rules prevent recruitment of some of the world's best‑trained consultants from Australia and New Zealand (ANZ). Meanwhile, UK junior doctors strike because they cannot secure specialist training posts and many then leave to ANZ where they complete world‑class training. However the UK cannot get them back and the NHS cannot recruit them because of a perverse legal framework:
- The UK blocks the NHS from recruiting ANZ trained specialists (even though ANZ medical training mirrors Britain's own),
- UK law mandates that the GMC must recognise all EU medical specialist qualifications,
- Health Authorities in ANZ have fast tracked UK doctor recruitment,
- The result: the UK operates a one-way export system of its doctors to ANZ while importing doctors from overseas
The power to fix this rests with Parliament. Claims by the Ministry of Health that you are powerless to change this as "the GMC is independent" ignore the fact that Parliament writes the rules that the GMC must follow. They also ignore repeated statutory orders Parliament has made requiring GMC recognition of EU qualifications. The same authority must apply to ANZ.
We urge you to direct the GMC to immediately recognise ANZ specialist qualifications using the same legal pathways already established for European doctors.
This single reform would unlock hundreds of ready‑to‑work consultants from ANZ for the NHS; expand specialist training pathways for UK doctors; help end the junior doctor strikes; and improve patient care.
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Featured in The Times
Read Eleanor Haywood's article highlighting the ridiculous consequences of these outdated rules on some British trained doctors who cannot even return with their families from Australia and NZ to work in the NHS.
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