Written question asked by Paul Burstow (Liberal Democrat) on Friday, 15 October 2004, in the House of Commons. It was due for an answer on Monday, 1 November 2004. It was answered by Lord Hutton of Furness (Labour) on Monday, 1 November 2004 on behalf of the Department of Health.

Dept of Health

Question: To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what estimate he has made of the number of trained refugee doctors in England who are not working in the NHS; and what estimate he has made of the average cost of retraining a refugee doctor to work in the NHS. - Inc figures.

Answer: Mr. Burstow: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what estimate he has made of the number of trained refugee doctors in England who are not working in the NHS; and what estimate he has made of the average cost of retraining a refugee doctor to work in the NHS. [192791] Mr. Hutton: This information requested is not held centrally. The British Medical Association (BMA) holds a database to monitor the number of refugee doctors in the United Kingdom. Of the 1,001 doctors registered on the database: 69 have secured posts in the national health service. 126 have passed Part II of the General Medical Council's (GMC) Professional and Linguistic Assessment Board (PLAB) examination. 94 have passed Part I of the PLAB examination. The majority of the rest are either studying for PLAB Part I or developing their English language skills in preparation for the CMC's English language tests. The cost of any retraining a doctor may need may vary on an individual basis. Most of the doctors registered on the BMA database need only to pass the CMC's PLAB exam in order to be eligible to apply for jobs and thereby qualify for limited registration with the GMC.

Secondary information