But ‘Indian doctors can come for service jobs’, Ramesh Mehta, President of the British Association of Physicians of Indian Origin (BAPIO), said.

Mehta said the new Home Office rules make it clear to international medical graduates (IMGS) currently overseas who are planning to come to the UK that it would be difficult for them to obtain post-graduate training here. But the rights of those IMGS who are already in the UK will be protected.

"We have been lobbying both the Home Office and the Department of Health for the last 5 years asking them to take action to limit the number of international graduates entering the UK. This is necessary since there are limited places for post-graduate training. This is in the best interests of both UK doctors and IMGS".

The change which was announced yesterday imposes a condition on Tier 1 (General) Migrants and Highly Skilled Migrants prohibiting them from taking a post as a doctor in training. The new rules, coming into effect on February 29, will not impact on recruitment until 2009.

Those who currently have leave to remain in the UK as a Highly Skilled Migrant and Postgraduate doctors or dentists who are seeking leave to remain as a Tier 1 (General) Migrant will be exempt from the new rules.

"The international doctors will still be able to come and work in UK in non-training jobs," Mehta said.

Raman Lakshman, Vice Chair for Policy, said, "BAPIO has always been clear that while we want fairness for IMGS, it is necessary to regulate the entry of overseas doctors so that UK graduates are not disadvantaged."

BAPIO, which represents the interests of over 25,000 doctors whose roots are in the Indian subcontinent, however, objected to the new consultation announced by the Department of Health (DH) regarding the highly skilled migrants doctors already in the UK.

"The DH appeal in the House of Lords is due to be heard on February 28 which in fact will be legally binding. It makes no sense to consult at this time," said Lakshman.

Doctors from the Indian subcontinent have been a major component of the NHS for many decades and played a significant part in provision of medical care to the British people.

There is a historic close relationship between the medical fraternity in the UK and the Indian subcontinent and a tradition of doctors from the Indian subcontinent coming to the UK for postgraduate training.

In April 2006 new rules were suddenly introduced withdrawing the permit free training for international medical graduates and applying the resident labour test to these doctors, including those who were on the HSMP. BAPIO opposed these changes saying they were unfair and retrospectively applied to doctors already committed to the UK and derecognised merit as the sole criteria for selection.

BAPIO went to court to overturn these changes and while it lost the case at the first hearing, its appeal to treat HSMP doctors on merit was upheld by the appeals court in December 2007.

As a sequel to the court decision, overseas doctors on HSMP were treated on merit in the 2007 and 2008 recruitment processes. However, the Department of Health has appealed against the verdict of the appeals court and the case will be heard in the House of Lords on February 28.

The changes in the Immigration law will end a long tradition of importing doctors to the NHS. Among the 277,000 now registered with the General Medical Council, almost half got their first medical qualifications abroad - the majority from India, Pakistan, South Africa and Australia. Without them the NHS could not have run a service since the 1960s.

Since 1997, however, the number of medical school places in Britain has almost doubled. There are now enough home-grown graduates to fill training posts, reducing or eliminating the need to import doctors.

In 2007, many UK-trained doctors were denied initial posts, or won only short-term positions, as 10,000 overseas doctors joined the queue for 20,000 posts.

The chairman of the British Medical Association had to resign after he defended the system of applying for training posts, in the face of widespread fury.

From April 1, the door will also be closed to migrants from India who are applying under a new points system.

So-called Tier 1 migrants - those with the highest qualifications - will be barred from applying for higher medical training posts.

Non-EU doctors already in Britain as Highly Skilled Migrants, or those seeking leave to remain as Tier 1 migrants, will still be free to apply.