Brexit transition period is a window of opportunity for European doctors

The UK left the European Union on January 31 and the so-called transition period has now kicked in for the remainder of 2020, during which London and Brussels will hammer out details of their future relationship.

That means the European doctors who dream of working as general practitioners (GPs) in the UK have until the end of the year to do so and avoid uncertainty that could follow from 2021 onwards.

“As the UK and the EU have agreed a deal, we’ll now be in a transition period until 31 December 2020. There’ll be no change to how we register doctors during this transition period,” the UK’s General Medical Council (GMC) said in a statement on January 31.

What happens after that will depend on the outcome of the negotiations throughout the transition period.

“Over the past two years we’ve been working closely with the four UK health departments [England, Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland] to make sure doctors wouldn’t be deterred from practicing here, regardless of how the UK exited the EU. We’ll continue to do the same in the months ahead and do all we can to support the retention and flow of doctors into the UK,” the GMC said.

Working as a GP in the UK is subject to a number of regulations, complying with which would be daunting if one wanted to do so on one’s own. Luckily, there are companies on contracts with the UK’s National Health Service (NHS) to recruit GPs, which are in high demand in Britain.

One such company is Paragona, a Swedish-Polish medical recruitment company on a mission from the NHS to recruit 100 GPs to work in the UK’s East Midlands by the end of 2020.

“Doctors’ best choice is to join our programme until there are no changes,” says Maria Roman, a recruitment specialist at Paragona.

The company offers GPs from across Europe a comprehensive 12-week training in language and NHS standards before they can move to the UK to start working at GP practices, initially under supervision. Upon completing the UK’s induction scheme, doctors later become independent and officially recognized British GPs.

For its part, Roman adds, the UK government has also added doctors of all specializations to the jobs’ shortage list. That means foreign doctors will no longer have to meet visa fees and financial thresholds to work in the NHS.

Foreign GPs and their families who are nationals of the European Economic Area (EEA) will be able to arrive and work in the UK freely during the transition period. Arrivals after the transition period will be subject to the UK’s new skills-based immigration system, expected to kick in from 2021.