Submitted by David Conrad Abelson on Sunday 5th October 2025
Published on Thursday 11th December 2025
Current status: Open
Open until: Thursday 11th June 2026
Current Signatures: 155
(count is updated approximately hourly)
Relevant Departments
Tagged with
By the NHS ~ Council ~ Cross ~ EU ~ Face ~ Lack ~ Medic ~ NHS ~ Parliament ~ Recruitment ~ Specialist ~ Staff ~ The NHS ~ training
Let the NHS Recruit Australian & NZ Specialists: Cross-Recognise Qualifications
The NHS is short 7,000+ medical staff and 52% of advertised vacancies go unfilled, mostly for lack of applicants. Many specialists want to come to the UK from Aust and NZ but they currently face a very difficult and costly 4+ year approval process.
This is because the General Medical Council (GMC) does not recognise Aust / NZ Medical Specialist qualifications. This, despite Parliament requiring the GMC recognise qualifications from anywhere in the EU. This includes many countries with medical systems, training, and language quite different to that in Aust, NZ and the UK.
This petition is for Parliament to require the GMC to recognise Aust and NZ Medical Specialist qualifications (as it does the EU) so that they can be recruited by the NHS
If you want to sign this petition (as opposed to merely discuss it), you need to do that on the government's e-Petitions website.
216.73.216.231 Thu, 25 Jun 2026 04:17:08 +0100