Foreign-trained doctors accounted for 55.6 per cent of misconduct cases proved before UK medical tribunals in the period analysed, despite making up about 42 per cent of the country’s medical workforce, according to an analysis published on Sunday. The figures have renewed scrutiny of medical regulation and overseas recruitment, although regulators have warned that differences in referral rates cannot automatically be treated as evidence that internationally trained doctors provide poorer care.
Patients concerned about an individual doctor should not judge them by where they trained. They can check a doctor’s registration and any current restrictions through the General Medical Council (GMC), while serious concerns about patient safety can be reported to the regulator.
The Telegraph analysis found that 118 of 212 doctors whose misconduct was proved in cases reviewed over the past year had received their primary medical qualification outside the UK. India was the most common overseas training country among those sanctioned, with 23 doctors, followed by Egypt with 17.
Among the regulatory outcomes identified were 28 doctors erased from the medical register, 69 suspended from practising, nine subjected to conditions and seven whose applications for restoration to the register were refused. The figures should not be read as meaning that every overseas-trained doctor faced the same type or seriousness of allegation.
What happens when misconduct is proved?
The Medical Practitioners Tribunal Service (MPTS) hears serious cases referred following GMC investigations. Its tribunals decide whether allegations have been proved, whether a doctor’s fitness to practise is impaired and whether restrictions are needed to protect patients and maintain confidence in the medical profession.
Possible outcomes include taking no action, imposing conditions on a doctor’s registration, suspension or erasure from the medical register. Being erased means the doctor is removed from the register and cannot practise as a registered doctor in the UK.
The cases examined covered a range of issues, including dishonesty, criminal convictions, professional competence, sexual misconduct and English-language concerns.
In one case cited in the analysis, Egypt-trained Dr Mohsen Ali was erased from the register following an MPTS finding of misconduct. Tribunal records show his fitness to practise was found impaired and erasure was ordered in April 2026. The case involved cancer patients who had been charged thousands of pounds for treatments that the tribunal found were improperly presented to them.
Another case involved Dr Tomasz Fryzlewicz, who qualified in Poland. The MPTS imposed an indefinite suspension following a review concerning his knowledge of English, finding his fitness to practise remained impaired.
Overseas doctors remain crucial to UK health services
The figures come against the backdrop of Britain’s heavy reliance on doctors educated overseas. The GMC says internationally qualified doctors now account for 42 per cent of the UK medical register, with 138,405 licensed doctors who qualified abroad recorded in its workforce analysis.
That reliance is particularly significant for the NHS. New Daily Prime has previously reported on the growing number of Nigerian-trained doctors moving to the UK, with Nigeria among the largest sources of internationally trained doctors working in Britain.
There are also concerns about retaining overseas clinicians. New Daily Prime previously reported warnings that racism and hostile rhetoric could drive foreign doctors away from the NHS. The GMC itself warned in June that the NHS could no longer assume internationally trained doctors would continue choosing to work in Britain.
The wider debate comes while the NHS faces continuing workforce and staffing pressures, including disputes over pay, training opportunities and the number of doctors available to provide services.
GMC says referral disparities need wider context
The misconduct figures also require caution because a tribunal finding is different from an initial complaint.
The GMC says only a small proportion of doctors become subject to a full fitness-to-practise investigation each year. A complaint can be closed without investigation, and an investigation does not automatically lead to a tribunal or sanction.
Internationally qualified doctors have historically been referred to the GMC by employers at higher rates than UK-qualified doctors. However, the regulator says research into that disparity found no evidence that the difference was simply explained by doctors’ capability.
Instead, the GMC has pointed to workplace and systemic factors and has been working with employers to reduce disproportionate referrals. It set a target in 2021 to eliminate disproportionate employer referrals based on ethnicity or where doctors obtained their primary medical qualification.
The regulator has reported substantial progress in narrowing those differences, although it says further work is needed, particularly in primary care.
The Telegraph reported that the GMC declined to comment specifically on its latest analysis.
What readers should know
The figures show that overseas-trained doctors accounted for a larger share of the proven tribunal misconduct cases analysed than their share of the UK medical workforce. They do not, however, establish that foreign-trained doctors generally are unsafe or that an overseas qualification alone makes misconduct more likely. Tribunal cases concern individual doctors and represent only a small part of the wider workforce. Patients with concerns should check the doctor’s GMC status and use the appropriate NHS or GMC complaints process rather than drawing conclusions from nationality or training background.
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