Visa cap lift for doctors a success three months on, says Remedium Partners

Three months after the Home Office excluded doctors from its Tier 2 visa cap, a consultancy which specialises in the recruitment of overseas doctors to ease the NHS’s reliance on locums has revealed that it is now seeing every Certificate of Sponsorship (CoS) applied for being approved - especially amongst non-shortage occupations.

Nicholas Hitchins, Head of Acute Medicine at Remedium Partners, commented:

“In the months before the lift, nearly all of the non-shortage occupation CoS’s in areas such as Anaesthetics, General Surgery and Acute Medicine that were applied for had been rejected continuously, due to the limitation. This caused extensive disruption and distress, not just for our doctors, but for our hospitals and Trusts that are relying on these permanent professionals. The visa cap lift in July has made a huge difference, especially to doctors applying to work in non-shortage occupations in the NHS.

“Compare this period with the last three months since the lift and we are delighted to say that not one of these non-specialist CoS’s have been rejected. This means that the visa process for the hundreds of doctors we have been working with in these specialisms is now much easier and we are looking forward to welcoming them to the NHS in the weeks and months to come.”

Sianie Morris, Head of Remedium’s Care & Transition team, which focusses on ensuring doctors relocate smoothly to the UK, added:

“The visa cap issues reached a peak during December 2017 when some of the Trusts we work with were unable to get a CoS for any non-shortage occupation doctor that they wanted to appoint - and this lasted for a period of six to seven months. We had cases where overseas doctors were so frustrated by the delays that they withdrew altogether.

“We know this change has been a massive relief for hospital departments around the country, which previously had application after application rejected. We are delighted that the cap lift has now normalised recruitment for the NHS and doctors are now jumping at the chance to work here. In fact, August was Remedium’s busiest and most successful month for doctors arriving since our consultancy was founded five years ago.”



For more information, please contact Helen Edmundson, at BlueSky PR on 01582 790 090 or email helen@bluesky-pr.com

About Remedium Partners

Established in 2013, Remedium Partners is fast becoming one of the leading providers of permanent and fixed-term doctors into the NHS. At Remedium Partners, we believe that placing permanent and fixed term doctors, rather than locums, saves the health service time and money. Having placed over 700 doctors since we were founded, we estimate to have saved the NHS in excess of £70M.

With over 20 years healthcare and recruitment experience collectively, our team truly understand the market we operate in and the qualities of our doctors, best matching them to the needs of our clients. The positions we work on require a unique understanding of medical specialties and our team of highly experienced market specialists, both in the UK and India, enable us to source high calibre candidates from around the world.