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New rules announced by health minister Lord Warner last month state that any doctor trained in a non-European Union country will now need a medical graduate work permit . The new legislation will take effect from July 1, 2006.

"International medical graduates are shocked and appalled by the new ruling by the National Health System to end work permit free training for doctors from outside the EU," said Peter Trewby the chairman of the Royal College of Physicians.

Trewby went on to say that the changes to the medical employment system are sudden and brutal.

"Any NHS trust now willing to employ non-EU medical staff will have to prove that there is no home grown doctor able to fill the post," said the chairman.

He fears that the announcement will cause hardship for many of those who have already started to climb the training...

This week, the ongoing battle in the US Senate over immigration continued to top the news. On Friday April 7, the US Senate failed to reach an agreement on a compromise that would allow the millions of illegal immigrants currently in the US to apply for US citizenship. Demonstrators poured onto the streets April 9 and 10 to rally for immigrant rights as Democrats and Republicans continued to quarrel over the government's overhaul of immigration laws. Many demonstrators wore white t-shirts to symbolise peace, waved American flags and voiced their anger at Congress' failure to pass reforms that would help many of the estimated 11-12 million illegal immigrants to become citizens. Instead an anti immigration bill was passed by the House of Representatives that would make illegal immigrants felons and build a 698 mile wall along parts of the Mexican border. The bill contains no provision for guest workers....

An IBM study is predicting that the city of London will become an even more important global centre for commerce and finance by the year 2015. Talent will be lured away from the US due to its restrictive regulations. US executives will leave the US to escape financial disclosure rules. UK's hedge funds will attract skilled mathematicians and actuaries from Eastern Europe.London will benefit from an influx of hard working and highly skilled immigrants with financial and actuarial skills. The increased competition for jobs in the financial sector will mean a reduction in labour costs. At the same time there will be a transfer of labour abroad, as back office work will be outsourced to Eastern Europe. The savings from outsourcing will mean increased profitability and greater investment in the UK. London's growing importance as a global financial centre will...

April 21, mainly overseas doctors demonstrated their displeasure at the new immigration rules that will make it difficult for doctors who qualified from outside the EU to remain for postgraduate training. Denis C Wilkins President of the Association of Surgeons of Great Britain and Ireland has said that the new rules move away from selection based on merit. "For more years than I can remember, doctors from the Indian sub-continent and other Commonwealth nations have been the backbone of the National Health Service in the UK. A change in Britain's immigration system means many of these doctors will have to make way for EU doctors who want to work in the UK," said Nordqvist of Medical News Today. The new rule, which comes into effect from July 2006, has come as a blow to non-EU qualified doctors who have been undertaking...