Resources for International Graduates

Information for International Medical Graduates

GMC registration

All doctors wishing to practice medicine in the UK will need to hold full registration with a licence to practice with the General Medical Council (GMC).

There are various routes for International Medical Graduates to obtain registration. The route that will be applicable to you it will depend on your training/experience and what you intend to relocate to the UK to do.

Please follow the link below to the GMC website then answer the filtering questions to select the route that is appropriate for you.

https://www.gmc-uk.org/doctors/applications.asp

Important information
International medical graduates applying for full registration with a licence to practise with the GMC will need to have their primary medical qualification independently verified before the GMC grant their registration.

This will apply to those that:

qualified at a medical school outside of the UK, EEA or Switzerland
are a national of a country outside the UK, European Economic Area (EEA) or Switzerland who graduated from medical schools outside the UK
do not already hold provisional registration

Verification will be carried out by the Educational Commission for Foreign Medical Graduates (ECFMG) through their online system – known as the Electronic Portfolio of International Credentials (EPIC) service. ECFMG will verify the qualification is genuine by checking this directly with the doctor’s awarding institution.

Doctors applying for registration that hold an acceptable postgraduate qualification (PGQ), will also need to have their PGQ verified.

Please read the full guidance carefully if you are considering applying for GMC registration via all routes
The full guidance is available here

Applying for UK EM training posts

Information can be found here for International Medical Graduates who wish to apply for a GMC-approved UK EM training programme leading to CCT or CESR-CP.

ACCS EM recruitment for CT1/ST1 posts will be coordinated by Shared Services London and HE Yorks and Humber oversee national EM recruitment to DRE-EM (ST3) and EM ST3 (more information can be found on their website here), in association with the Royal College of Emergency Medicine posts throughout England, Wales and Scotland.

The person specifications for all levels of entry can be found here.

Specific guidance for overseas nationals can be found here at the applicant guidance page under the “Right to work in the UK” tab.

The Medical Training Initiative (MTI)

The Royal College of Emergency Medicine is one of the Medical Royal Colleges taking part in the Medical Training Initiative (MTI). The MTI is a national scheme designed to allow a small number of doctors to enter the UK from overseas for a maximum of 24 months. The primary purpose of the MTI is to contribute to the improvement of the quality of healthcare in developing countries. The MTI helps to build healthcare capacity by enabling doctors in those considered priority countries (DFiD priority, low income & lower middle income) to access a period of training and development in NHS services before returning to their home countries where their patients and colleagues can benefit from the skills and experience they have obtained in the UK.

Please note, applications made from doctors that are not living and working in those considered priority countries (DFiD priority, low income & lower middle income) can have no guarantee or expectation of receiving a place on the scheme.

The Royal College of Emergency Medicine’s International Sponsorship Scheme provides successful applicants with sponsorship for full GMC registration with a license to practice – without taking the Professional and Linguistic Assessment Board (PLAB) test – only for those taking part in the Medical Training Initiative.

Full guidance can be found at the links below:

Academy of Medical Royal Colleges – Prospective applicants
The Royal College of Emergency Medicine’s International Sponsorship Scheme – guidance for applicants

Please note: The MTI scheme is not

A route to GMC registration for those that have failed either part of the PLAB test
Applicable to those that wish to join a service post in the UK with no training component.
A route to permanent UK employment (MTI doctors must return home to their home countries at the end of their placement).

Emergency Medicine International Training (EMIT) Programme

Health Education England, supported by the Royal College of Emergency Medicine and the Society of Emergency Medicine India, is piloting the recruitment of International Training Fellows in Emergency Medicine to complement our existing trainees, consultants and specialty doctors. Each post will be fully integrated within the specialty team in one of a number of Trusts within the East of England and will support high quality provision of patient care in Emergency Medicine. These posts will provide excellent training and service opportunities for doctors with varying career aspirations. The scheme is fully endorsed by the Royal College of Emergency Medicine (RCEM) and Society of Emergency Medicine India (SEMI) to give international doctors established UK based training with a view to bringing their skills back to their home country.

They will be based in hospitals within the East of England. In order to maximise the effectiveness of the support programmes, start dates will be fixed. Candidates may be grouped into smaller cohorts, depending on their readiness to travel to the UK.

Please click here for further information.

Helpful online resources for International Doctors working in the UK

Welcome to UK practice

WTUKP is a free half-day learning session provided by the GMC to help doctors new to practice, or new to the country, to understand the ethical issues that will affect them and their patients on a day to day basis.

In the session, you will:

Look at the role of the GMC and their standards and guidance on what makes a good doctor
Learn from the real life experiences of senior UK doctors through their video ‘Things I wish I’d known’
Work through interactive ethical scenarios on issues faced by doctors new to UK practice, including consent, confidentiality, raising concerns 0-18 care and prescribing
Create your own learning log with tips and reflections to take away with you.

The GMC hold these sessions both at their London and Manchester offices.

Working and training in the NHS – a guide for international medical graduates – available here

The NHS employers website gives a range of information for doctors from outside the European Economic Area including:

immigration requirements
access to UK training
pay and conditions
evidence of right to work permissions.

e-LFH Induction for International Doctors – available here.

This is a free e-Learning package to support all new international doctors working in the NHS provided by e-Learning for Healthcare (e-LFH).
The Induction for International Doctors programme is a web-based educational resource developed by Central Manchester University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust (CMFT) in partnership with HEE e-Learning for Healthcare (e-LfH), to introduce internationally qualified doctors, who are new to UK clinical practice, to ethical, social, legal and professional aspects of UK clinical practice. The programme has a number of interactive e-learning sessions produced by CMFT, along with a number of sessions taken from other e-LfH programmes which supplement the focus of the programme.

eLearning Induction Package for International Medical Graduates new to training within the NHS – available here.

The London and South East Postgraduate Medical and Dental Education website has an eLearning induction package produced by North East London NHS Foundation Trust and the Professional Support Unit. This resource has been created primarily to support IMGs with various practical resources to assist with the transition to the UK.

Academy of Medical Royal Colleges – MTI Relocation Guide – available here.

This helpful guide has been produced by the Academy of Medical Royal Colleges to in collaboration with the Royal Colleges, to give international doctors participating in the Medical Training Initiative (MTI) scheme general advice about moving to the UK. The guide is not exhaustive but it does cover some of the key things that MTI doctors will need to arrange and may find useful to know when moving to the UK.

Whilst this guide has been produced for those coming to the UK via the Medical Training Initiative Scheme, it does hold some very helpful practical information that international medical graduates coming to work in the UK via other routes may also find helpful.

ePortfolio for International Trainees – available here.

The RCEM ePortfolio is available for International trainees this is more cost effectively accessed as a feature of membership. For details of how to sign up for Membership in order to access ePorfolio, please click here. Special arrangements are in place for trainees in Ireland and Iceland. UK trainees have their own ePortfolio section.

RCEM Learning

https://www.rcemlearning.co.uk/

The College has an eLearning resource – RCEMLearning – the content of which has been mapped to the EM curriculum. The majority of content is open access and the site includes a section devoted to the production and dissemination of FOAMed materials, however, the content in the Exams and CPD section is for RCEM members only.

Please click here if you would like to sign up for RCEM Membership.

For issues with access, please contact rcemlearning@rcem.ac..uk

Information about clinical attachments and observerships

It is possible to come to the UK as a visitor without GMC registration to undertake a clinical attachment or observer placement. Clinical attachments or observer placements usually last a few weeks and are usually unpaid. If accepted, visitors would be observers only and would not be allowed to treat any patients.

The RCEM does not arrange clinical attachments or observer placements. Those interested would need to identify their own placements and make arrangements directly with the host hospital. For a list of hospitals, please see the NHS hospital directory.

If you find a hospital that you are interested in visiting for a placement but cannot find information on their website, it may be helpful to the Clinical Director of Emergency Medicine to ask if a clinical attachment or observer placement is possible.

Many hospitals do not provide clinical attachments or observer placements, so visitors should be prepared to try many hospitals before getting a positive response. A personal connection can only help.

Please note that those undertaking these placements will likely have to cover their own costs i.e, pay for their own travel, accommodation and for any checks of health status, etc.