LONDON: Over 10,000 doctors from India, who are training in Britain, may be forced to return home after they lost a legal challenge on Friday against new immigration rules which bar government hospitals from hiring doctors from outside the European Union (E.U.) without work permit.

The rules, which came into force last April and upheld by the High Court on Friday, require government hospitals wishing to employ doctors from outside the E.U. to demonstrate that no U.K. or E.U. doctor is available to fill the post.

The Government claims it is responding to demands for jobs from British medical graduates whose number has risen considerably in recent years.

Dr. Ramesh Mehta, president of the British Association of Physicians of Indian Origin (BAPIO), described the judgment "very disappointing.'' He said the Association was likely to challenge it. The High Court has allowed them leave to appeal.

"I am very surprised because we believe we had a strong case,'' Dr. Mehta told The Hindu . He argued that the new rules were discriminatory and inconsistent with the requirement of equality under the 1971 Immigration Act.

Nearly 16,000 overseas doctors were affected by the "arbitrary'' change in rules and 80 per cent of them were from India. They were either training in the U.K. or working as junior doctors, he said.

"The BAPIO feels that the new rules are unfair and unjust, and lead to discrimination against doctors who have been the backbone of the NHS since its inception,'' Dr. Mehta said, pointing out that the new rules were pushed through without "warning'' or consultation with professional medical bodies.

The BAPIO has suggested a three-point formula: (1) overseas junior doctors now working in the U.K. be allowed to complete their training without a permit; (2) those living in the U.K. but not employed be given a grace period of up to two years in which to find a training post; and (3) overseas doctors who had graduated from a U.K. medical school be allowed to complete all their training in the NHS, not just the two years stipulated by the new rules.

The British Medical Association has described the changes as "horrifying.''

A spokesman said the overseas doctors had devoted a "huge amount of talent, time, and energy'' to the NHS and deserved a better deal. "The U.K.'s international medicine is also being harmed," he said.

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