The Medical Training (Prioritisation) Bill will prioritise doctors from the UK and Ireland, and those who have worked in the NHS for a significant period, for specialty training places.

Graduates from the UK and Ireland would also be prioritised for foundation training under the bill.

The move forms part of health secretary Wes Streeting's bid to resolve the dispute between the Government and resident doctors in England.

Streeting said: ‘British taxpayers spend £4bn training medics every year, so it makes little sense for many of them to then be left struggling to get speciality training places and fearing for their futures.

‘The catastrophic mismanagement of the system by the previous administration has left UK graduates competing with doctors from around the world.

‘To protect our investment and give them a path to become the next generation of NHS doctors, we are taking a number of measures including today introducing a Bill to prioritise graduates from UK medical schools for specialty training places.

‘We are bringing this forward now so that it will be in place for this year's applicants.

‘Our NHS will never exclude international talent, and these changes will also prioritise doctors from overseas who have worked in the NHS for a significant period, but this will restore our home-grown medics to the level playing field they deserve and ensure a sustainable medical workforce in the NHS.'

Streeting is currently in talks with the BMA, and it is being reported that the future of this new legislation will be confirmed after the outcome of these talks.

In response, Dr Jack Fletcher, chair of the BMA's Resident Doctors Committee, said: ‘Today is a step forward to fixing the jobs crisis for doctors with this new legislation. However, there remains progress to be made on giving resident doctors in the UK confidence the Government can fully solve the absurd jobs crisis.

‘This is a new policy of prioritising doctors trained in the UK for NHS jobs, which will come into effect across the four nations. This has the potential to reduce the number of doctors who can't find work despite the state having spent time and money training them up.'

He added: ‘We are however concerned about the effect on doctors with significant NHS experience who originally qualified abroad. We've made clear that any change to specialty training post applications would need to protect and recognise those international doctors with significant NHS experience; something that this legislation does not go far enough on. We appreciate that the UK Government is finally moving with more urgency, using emergency legislation – which begins to recognise the scale of the critical jobs shortage doctors are facing.

‘The introduction of emergency legislation does give us some hope that this Government is finally waking up to the urgency of the situation. That said, we are also concerned that we need more doctors in our NHS. We are an under-doctored country – the NHS cannot afford to lose those doctors who have propped the system up for so long, and we must see genuine new investment in job roles to properly fix this jobs crisis.'

The BMA is currently balloting its resident doctors members on whether or not to continue industrial action. The union's current mandate runs out this month, but this could be extended to August if the ballot is successful.

Reaction

Matthew Taylor, chief executive at the NHS Confederation, said: ‘Our members will welcome the Medical Training (Prioritisation) Bill, which aims to introduce a fairer system for allocating postgraduate medical training places. It's encouraging to see the government taking action to reform how these places are offered so the NHS can better match training capacity to workforce need – an important element of the Government's Ten-Year Health Plan.

‘However, it remains a concern that even though this bill was introduced, by the Government, in part to avert strike action by resident doctors, on its own it has not been enough to placate them, and as it stands, we are still left with the prospect of future walk-outs.'

Professor Mumtaz Patel, RCP president, said: ‘We welcome government action to tackle specialty training bottlenecks – an issue the Royal College of Physicians has been raising consistently through our next generation campaign for the past year. Now we need to see the detail of these proposals. For too long, talented doctors have been left stuck in a system that does not give them fair or timely opportunities to progress.

‘International medical graduates already working in the NHS are our colleagues and friends, providing vital care to patients every day, and they must be properly supported to develop their careers. But this cannot be addressed in isolation. The medical training system needs a fundamental reset – with more postgraduate training places, genuinely flexible career pathways, and sustained investment in high-quality training and supervision – if we are serious about securing the future physician workforce and delivering excellent patient care.'

Professor Victoria Tzortziou-Brown, chair of the Royal College of GPs, said: 'The college recognises the exceptional pressures currently facing medical specialty training, with record competition for a limited number of places at a time of growing demand for GP services. In this context, we understand why the Government is considering emergency legislation to introduce prioritisation for specialty training based on a defined set of factors, including graduation from a UK medical school. When competition for places reaches these high levels, it is reasonable to consider how public investment in medical education best supports a sustainable workforce for patients.

‘However, it is also critical to recognise that international medical graduates (IMGs) make up over 50% of GP registrars and make vital contributions to the NHS. The College will continue to support all of our IMG registrars and members and highlight that resolutions to short term bottlenecks must be delivered in a fair manner which protects the highest standards for entry into GP training.'