I am a British citizen and the husband of a doctor who has the legal right to live and work in the UK. I am starting this petition because I believe British families should not have to choose between staying together and one spouse being able to pursue their medical career.

From 2027, the Government  has introduced changes to the prioritisation of applicants for UK medical specialty training. Under the new arrangements, certain groups will receive priority at the shortlisting and offer stages of specialty training recruitment. This includes applicants with certain immigration statuses, such as British citizens and those with indefinite leave to remain, but does not currently include doctors (those on spouse visas) simply because they are the spouse or civil partner of a British citizen.

We ask the Government to include doctors who are married to British citizens and have unrestricted permission to work in the UK in the priority group for medical specialty training from 2027 onwards.

Behind every doctor affected by this policy is a person, a family and often a life that has already been built in this country.

Many doctors on spouse visas are fully GMC registered, qualified to work in the NHS and have the legal right to work without sponsorship. They have moved to the UK to build their lives with their husbands, wives and children. They want to work, contribute to the NHS and the UK. And build their medical careers here.

Yet under the new 2027 specialty training prioritisation arrangements, their immigration status can place them outside the priority group, despite having the right to live and work in the UK with their British families.

Waiting until a doctor obtains ILR is not a practical solution. In the meantime, these doctors may struggle to secure substantive NHS roles and, most importantly, may be excluded from specialty training opportunities. This can mean losing valuable years of career progression, while their clinical gap becomes longer and their ability to progress within medicine becomes increasingly difficult.

It is difficult to understand why doctors who are already legally able to live and work in the UK should be expected to simply wait for ILR while potentially losing years of their medical careers. Their right to work already exists, and their careers cannot simply be put on hold until their immigration status changes.

This creates a deeply difficult choice.

Should a doctor leave their British husband or wife, leave their children, and return to another country simply to pursue the training and career they have worked for years to achieve?

A medical career should allow someone to provide for the family they love. It should not force them to choose between their family and their profession.

These doctors are not asking for an advantage simply because they are married to British citizens. They are asking that their established family circumstances and unrestricted right to work in the UK are recognised when determining access to specialty training.

The NHS needs doctors. Families need to stay together. Doctors who are already legally able to live and work in the UK should have a meaningful opportunity to build their careers here.

We therefore ask the Government to amend the 2027 specialty training prioritisation arrangements to include doctors who are spouses or civil partners of British citizens and have unrestricted permission to work in the UK on a UK Partner/Spouse Visa within the priority group for specialty training interviews and offers.

No doctor should have to choose between the family they have built and the career they have spent years working towards.