Wednesday, April 9, 2014

Indian doctors accuse UK exam body of bias at hearing

Indian doctors accuse UK exam body of bias at hearing

An organisation representing
Indian-origin doctors in the UK has accused the country's
medical examination authority of bias as it brought their case
before the High Court here.
The British Association of Physicians of Indian Origin's
(BAPIO) two-day judicial review hearing against the Royal
College of General Practitioners (RCGP) and General Medical
Council (GMC) is expected to conclude today, with a judgement
being issued by the end of this month.
BAPIO's claim centres around the RCGP's membership exam,
the MRCGP, which all doctors�must pass to practise as GPs in
the UK.
"The issue arising in this claim is the marked
differences in the MRCGP success rates as between
international medical graduates (IMGs) and non-IMGs and
different racial groups," Karon Monaghan, representing the
BAPIO, told Justice Mitting at the hearing.
"Overall, BAPIO contends that the candidates'
nationality, national or ethnic origin, or colour, has had a
significant influence on the outcome of their examinations.
The only proper inference, therefore, is that the college has
directly discriminated against IMGs and BME (black and
minority ethnic) candidates," she added.
Monaghan argued that the college's Equality Act duties
required it to take proportionate "positive action" to put
right any disadvantage or discrimination being suffered by
overseas doctors in the examinations process.
She told the judge: "The college has failed and is
continuing to fail to comply with the Public Sector Equality
Duty (PSED) in repeatedly applying the MRCGP and, in
particular, the CSA (clinical skills assessment) without
modification notwithstanding that the discriminatory, that is
to say disparate, outcomes are clear."
The RCGP says that differences in exam results could
result from a series of factors, including the quality of
undergraduate training in different countries.
It, however, said that an official comment will be made
only at the end of the ongoing judicial review case.
"We want fairness and equal treatment for IMG trainees.
For the qualifying bodies, it should be an extremely worrying
point if a large number of trainees from a particular
background are failing, despite most successfully completing
three years in training under supervision and actually
servicing live patients," said BAPIO president Dr Ramesh
Mehta, himself an examiner in the UK.
The group's legal fees have already hit an estimated
50,000 pounds but it has refused to back down over the issue.
Studies released last year had revealed that white
candidates are four times more likely to pass the exam first
time than minority ethnic candidates trained in the UK, and 14
times more likely than candidates trained overseas.

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