Britain’s highest court hears case of Indian doctors

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Agencies

Posted online: Thursday , February 28, 2008 at 06:39:27
Updated: Thursday , February 28, 2008 at 06:59:27

London, February 28: Britain’s highest court on Thursday began hearing the case of thousands of Indian doctors in London who were rendered jobless after the government decided to abruptly change the rules to give preference to European physicians in the state-run health service.

Britain’s Health Department, which runs the National Health Service--the biggest employer of doctors in the country, had appealed the October 2007 decision of the High Court in favour of the British Association of Physicians of Indian Origin (BAPIO) which championed the cause of the Indian doctors who came in Britain under the Highly Skilled Migrants Programme.

BAPIO, which has a 6,000 strong membership and represents a further 25,000 Indian doctors in the UK, said it was confident of victory. “We hope to get justice from the highest court of the land as we have a strong case,” its President Dr Ramesh Mehta said.

The organisation said “the doctors who are in Britain on HSMP visas are entitled to be treated on a par with British and EU applicants”.

Five senior judges - the Law Lords-- - who are members of the House of Lords are hearing the case which will decide the future of Indian doctors who found themselves in a limbo when the British Government made changes to the HSMP visas regulations in March 2006 in order to accommodate medical graduates from the 27-nation European Union region.

Without consulting HSMP visa holders, the Department of Health directed the state-funded National Health Service to consider non-European Applicants for jobs only if there were no suitable graduates from the EU or Britain.

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