Foreign doctors 'twice as likely to face disciplinary hearings'

According to the Times, three times the number of doctors who trained abroad were struck off the UK medical register last year compared with 2005.

The General Medical Council has commissioned a series of research projects which will look at a range of issues including the competence of foreign doctors and whether they are subject to institutional racism within the health service.

More than 5,000 cases were dealt with by the GMC in 2006, the paper said.

Of these 303 resulted in a fitness-to-practise hearing and 54 doctors were struck off - 35 of whom had trained outside the UK.

Last month Gordon Brown pledged to tighten checks on medical staff who trained overseas after three NHS doctors were charged in connection with the failed car bomb attacks on London and Glasgow.

Overseas doctors wanting to work in the UK face checks by the Home Office, the GMC and individual hospitals or trusts, including criminal record checks and identity checks.

But in many cases the system relies on information provided by authorities in unstable and even war-torn countries.

Qualified doctors usually enter the UK by applying for a visa and work permit - a process involving security checks and asking their home country to provide details of any criminal record.

Nearly 30 per cent of complaints about foreign doctors came from other health professionals or the police compared with less then 15 per cent of complaints against UK-trained doctors.

Paul Philip, director of standards and fitness-to-practise at the GMC told the paper: "The number of fitness-to-practise cases we deal with is going up year on year.

"Doctors with a primary medical qualification from overseas or within the EU are disproportionately represented and more are being refereed to us than we should see without good explanation."

A Department for Health spokesman said all NHS doctors were subject to stringent pre-employment checks.