Overseas-trained NHS doctors more likely to be struck off without lawyer at disciplinary

Many overseas-trained doctors are reportedly unaware that they are not covered by the NHS for complaints about their personal behaviour. Photograph: Christopher Furlong/Getty

Doctors from overseas working in the NHS are more likely to be suspended or struck off when they have no lawyer to represent them at a disciplinary hearing, new figures show.

The findings have raised fresh questions about whether the General Medical Council (GMC) displays “systemic racial bias” in its treatment of foreign-born medics accused of wrongdoing.