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The NHS International Fellowship Scheme

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2018

Tayyeb A. Tahir
Tayyeb A. Tahir*
Affiliation:
Whitchurch Hospital, Cardiff CF14 7XB
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Psychiatric Bulletin , Volume 29 , Issue 3 , March 2005 , pp. 116
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Creative Common License - CCCreative Common License - BY
This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC-BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
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Copyright © 2005. The Royal College of Psychiatrists.

The NHS International Fellowship Scheme (Reference KhanKhan, 2004) is discriminatory against UK trainees and non-consultant career grade (NCCG) psychiatrists. Those who choose to come to the UK and train for membership of the Royal College of Psychiatrists should feel aggrieved.

Some of the members of our College have valuable NCCG experience. Unfortunately, European legislation does not permit any NCCG experience to be counted towards the Certificate of Completion of Specialist Training (CCST). In contrast many from overseas can get on the specialist register without any UK experience.

Reportedly, these NHS international fellows are experienced psychiatrists with overseas qualifications. Goldberg (Reference Goldberg2004) mentions strict selection criteria but what evidence do we have of accreditation of training from countries where NHS international fellows are recruited? Does their training reflect the standards and strict time limits set for post membership training in the UK? This accreditation seems to be a flexible paper exercise. Also, we must not forget that psychiatric higher training is not about management of mental illnesses alone.

Our Royal College should not forget NCCGs, who have filled a gap in NHS psychiatry. The Postgraduate Medical Education Training Board is likely to bring a change. Our college should pre-empt this and show leadership by forward thinking and acknowledge NCCG experience of their members towards CCST.

Overseas doctors should be welcomed. However, they should undergo a period of specialist registrar training in the UK commensurate with their experience. Following this training they should be appointed as consultants in open competition against home grown trainees.

References

Goldberg, D. (2004) The NHS International Fellowship Scheme in Psychiatry. Psychiatric Bulletin, 28, 433–434.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Khan, M. M. (2004) The NHS International Fellowship Scheme in Psychiatry: robbing the poor to pay the rich? Psychiatric Bulletin, 28, 435–437.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
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