NHS recruiting 50 doctors from India over Skype to plug desperate A&E shortages



Candidates will be shortlisted in an interview over video link next week



Health bosses insisted it was the only way to fill urgent staffing gaps



NHS will pay more than £3,000 per doctor on flights, visas and training



The NHS is recruiting 50 doctors directly from India in a bid to fill desperate staffing gaps in Britain's A&E departments.

Around 150 candidates, some of whom have not yet taken final exams in emergency medicine, will be interviewed in New Delhi over Skype next week and begin a four-year spell in Britain this summer.

Health bosses insist the drastic measure, which will cost the NHS £3,120 per doctor in flights, visas, registration and access to training tools, is the only way to keep emergency wards safely staffed.

Breaking point: NHS bosses insist the move is the way to plug drastic staff shortages on A&E wards (file photo)

Some A&E training courses in Britain have been more than half empty with 135 vacancies across the board this year.

One campaigner criticised the fact not all candidates will have to complete the Professional and Linguistic Assessments Board (PLAB) test - designed to check they have the right skills and knowledge to work in Britain.

Peter Walsh, chief executive of Action against Medical Accidents, told the Daily Telegraph: 'I am really concerned to hear about the exceptions being made to the normal rules.



'I can see that the situation is urgent, but we really need to avoid being forced to take the sorts of panic measures which could compromise patient safety.'

Lifeline: The pilot scheme will last four years

But Health Education England, which is arranging the programme, insisted the PLAB test was one of just three ways in which foreign doctors can be registered in Britain.

A spokesman added every doctor on the scheme would have to pass an English language test and they will also be questioned face-to-face before making the final cut.

The Overseas Development Project has had around 150 applications from Indian doctors and those successful will be placed in 'learning posts' in hospitals across Britain.

The pilot project is running for the first time this year and comes after several reviews on poor standards, including a high-profile crackdown under NHS England director Sir Bruce Keogh.

The worst-hit A&E units had thousands of patients waiting longer than four hours and staff shortages so severe they compromised patient safety.

One Victorian-era unit named and shamed by the Keogh Review at Medway Maritime Hospital in Gillingham, Kent, was described as 'not fit for purpose' and has had to be rebuilt.

In some areas the pressure is making shortages even worse as medics move out of A&E departments because they cannot cope.



To combat the shortages hospitals have seen a huge rise in the amount they spend on agency staff since 2010, including £242million last year alone.

Wye Valley NHS Trust, in Hertfordshire, paid £3,717 for one doctor to work a 30-hour shift, the highest single payment of any NHS body.

Some doctors were paid not just for the hours they spent in the hospital, but also time they spent on call, including time they spent asleep.

Dr Cliff Mann, President of the College of Emergency Medicine - which is also working on the Indian programme - told the Daily Telegraph: 'The pressures are heaped on Accident and Emergency; we currently have the worst doctor to patient ratio that we have ever had, with demand vastly outstripping supply.'

Plugging the gap: Hospitals spent £242million on agency staff last year. One earned £3,700 for a 30-hour shift

Defending the move, a Health Education England spokesman told MailOnline the department was also trying to recruit within Britain and one course this year is 100 per cent full.

He said: ‘Our recommendations will ensure availability of more doctors in emergency medicine in 2014, both in terms of appropriately qualified middle grade doctors and additional trainees for the future, to help ensure that patients receive consistent, high quality, safe and effective care.