NHS employers | international medical graduates | training posts

The House of Lords has held that it was unlawful for the Department of Health to issue guidance to NHS employers that doctors from outside the European Economic Area (EEA) should be appointed to training posts only if there were no suitable candidates from within the EEA to fill them.

Historically, there have not been enough junior doctors from within the EEA to fill all of the training posts in the UK, so it had been necessary to use international medical graduates from elsewhere, in particular India.