The Medical Training (Prioritisation) Act became law last week.
However, this legislation takes a fundamentally different approach from the BMA to protecting IMGs (international medical graduates) working in the UK.
BMA policy, set at the last annual representative meeting, called for UK medical graduates to be prioritised for specialty training, with protections for IMGs already working in the NHS before the 5 March 2025, who have or go on to get two years of NHS/HSC experience.
The new legislation doesn’t use cut-off dates – instead, anyone who comes to the UK and gains ‘significant NHS experience’ will, in time, be able to apply for training on an equal footing with UK graduates.
What ‘significant NHS experience’ means is still up for debate. But new analysis from NHS England has shown that a two-year NHS experience threshold, even with a cut off in March 2025, will not meaningfully reduce competition ratios for some years to come.
Given the legislation is now live, and members need clarity about the BMA’s position, council has approved a request to defer the implementation of our existing policy until the July 2026 meeting of council or until new policy is formed by the annual representative meeting in June 2026.
This request was submitted by the BMA medical students committee and BMA resident doctors committee.
With the policy now deferred, the BMA will be able to engage on the detailed options the Government is going to consult on when it comes to defining what ‘significant NHS experience’ means to best maximise the prioritisation of our members in the recruitment process.
It’s vital that we’re able to do this, alongside our ongoing work to protect all non-prioritised groups with other key lobbying efforts.
While we welcome the act, it ultimately doesn’t fix the fundamental problem of a lack of training posts in our system. That’s why we continue to call for more places overall, so that anyone who wants to work in our NHS and make it the best it can be, can.