Dr Siti Ibrahim, aged 37, has almost finished her training as a GP in Yorkshire. Originally from Malaysia, she has lived in Britain for 17 years and studied for her medical degree here. But she may leave the UK because of the “unfair and punitive” fees she has to pay for her visa and NHS care.

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I’m one of the 81,000 overseas doctors working in the NHS across the UK. I’m from Malaysia but did my medical degree here, in Glasgow, and have lived here for 17 years, though with periods back in Malaysia too. I still need a visa to work here, despite having been [here] for almost half my life. I’ve nearly finished my training as a GP and work in a GP surgery in Rotherham in Yorkshire.

Even colleagues in the NHS are shocked when they hear how much money overseas doctors have to pay to live and work here. The sums are enormous – they’re far too high. Last year I had to pay £5,400 for the right to work here for a year. Of that, £4,200 was for the visa for me and my family and the other £1,200 was the Immigration Health Surcharge (IHS), which is £200-a-head each for myself, my husband and our four children, who are aged four to nine.

My visa runs out in August. But if I want to renew it so I can stay for another three years that will cost me £11,400. That’s because while the visa would cost another £4,200, the IHS was doubled in January so I’d have to pay three years in advance at £400 each for the six of us. That £11,400 is a huge amount of money – it’s unacceptable – and I don’t have it. It’s a huge sum especially as I am raising a family and already pay tax and National Insurance. I may have to borrow it, but I shouldn’t have to borrow money just to stay here so I can continue to contribute to the NHS.

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It feels like overseas doctors like myself are being penalised for wanting to stay in the UK and keep working in the NHS. I particularly resent having to pay the Immigration Health Surcharge. I already pay tax and National Insurance, so why should I have to pay again to use the NHS, especially given I work in it? NHS overseas staff shouldn’t have to pay it. It’s making money out of the people that keep the NHS running. It’s wrong, unfair and punitive – like a form of double taxation.

At a time when the NHS is so understaffed, these charges are deterring people from staying in the UK. With that huge sum due in August I’m considering what to do. The way the Home Office is treating us makes me feel unappreciated. I’d like to stay. But I’d be more than happy to go back to Malaysia. There’s a shortage of doctors there so I’d be able to get a job. But equally I could go and work anywhere in Europe, New Zealand or Australia – there is a shortage of doctors internationally. I feel the UK has invested so much in me; my heart is here in the NHS. But there is only so much that I can take.

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These visa and NHS charges are becoming increasingly unaffordable for overseas doctors, among whom there is a lot of frustration and anger about them. If the Home Office don’t rethink them then I may choose to leave. If I do that, though, the NHS will have even fewer doctors. Colleagues and patients are disappointed that I may leaving because of these charges. But it feels like the Home Office is trying to push us away. Given how short the NHS is of doctors, the government should be looking at incentives for doctors trained in the UK to stay here, not penalties to drive them away.