Many overseas doctors feel ill-prepared to join NHS, survey finds

Many doctors from overseas are left feeling lost, anxious and not ready to care for patients after joining the NHS because they are not properly looked after, research has found.

Many international medical graduates (IMGs) feel the NHS does not help them prepare for life as a doctor in the UK and the practicalities of moving to a new country, according to a survey.

Almost six in 10 (58%) of those questioned thought their induction was inadequate, and almost half (48%) felt anxious about starting to perform clinical duties in the UK.

The Medical Protection Society (MPS), which surveyed 737 IMGs working in England, said the results showed that too many foreign-trained doctors were “still being let down” professionally and personally by the NHS.

One doctor said: “I was very anxious and worried as working clinically without induction and [a] very brief period of shadowing … I was just lost.”

Another said: “I asked several times about induction, to be told that I will just learn on the job and ‘it will be fine’.”

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Source: The Guardian, 28 June 2024