NHS hospitals were today warned to be wary of offering placements to students from overseas medical schools amid concerns about the quality of their training.
The General Medical Council (GMC) has issued a factsheet detailing the position on accrediting degrees from certain UK-based overseas medical schools.
The move comes after an investigation into the links these schools claim to have with overseas universities.
Last month, the BBC questioned the validity of the degrees held by doctors from private medical colleges in the UK, which can charge tens of thousands of pounds for training.
The GMC, which held its council meeting today, has now provided information for the NHS and other medical institutions considering clinical placements for medical students.
It said there were 27 UK medical schools recognised by the GMC whose medical education complied with the curriculum set by the watchdog.
The GMC said a medical degree from one of these medical schools was recognised for the purposes of registration with them.
Organisations offering clinical placements should ensure that students are studying at one of the 27 UK-based medical schools recognised by the GMC, the factsheet said.
But the GMC said it was aware that there were some private UK and non-UK based medical colleges offering medical courses.
It said that these colleges did not fall within the GMC’s jurisdiction and were not supervised or quality-assured in any way by them.
“Any organisation considering providing clinical placements for the students from such colleges should assure itself about the medical education provision and the quality assurance arrangements.
“The GMC is unable to provide a quality assurance role and organisations are, therefore, strongly recommended to undertake thorough investigations, and take appropriate advice, before providing clinical placements for such students,” the GMC statement said.
The council’s chief executive, Finlay Scott, said that by issuing this advice it wanted to help protect patients from poor quality care.
“We are saying to hospitals that before you give anyone access to your patients, you must make sure that they are qualified to care for them,” he said.