A FLAGSHIP scheme to combat chronic shortages of doctors by training refugee medics is under threat because government funding has dried up amid NHS deficits.

The Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine was the first in the country to launch a diploma course for refugees to convert their training to UK standards.

But yesterday "serious concerns" were raised about the future of the £100,000-a-year scheme after it emerged the Government is stopping all UK funding of such training.

Already three courses are about to close, in London, Bristol and the West Midlands, and many others are said to be under threat including the Liverpool scheme.

Last night doctors criticised the Department of Health's "short-sighted" decision,, which they said would deprive the NHS of a vital source of skilled workers.

Dr Ian Marshall, who set up the Liverpool scheme, is a senior lecturer at the School of Tropical Medicine.

He said the course received an initial £50,000 from the DoH in 2003, and a further £50,000 in 2004, as part of £2m granted nationwide. But last year the Liverpool scheme had to rely solely on private donations.

Dr Marshall said: "We are very concerned. We have managed to find funding for this year, but every year it is an increasing struggle to keep it going.

"There are big questions about the future of all these courses if all the different funding streams dry up.

"It seems very short-sighted, as refugee doctors can make a vital contribution to the manpower of UK hospitals.

"We have to ask is our health service really in the state that we can afford to turn our back on this skilled workforce, and the answer is we can't - as I understand it there is still a shortage."

The Liverpool diploma course trains refugee doctors part time, for a year, in Merseyside GP surgeries and hospitals including the Liverpool Women's Hospital, Aintree and Ormskirk.

So far 20 doctors have completed the course. It is not known how many trained in Liverpool are now in full-time employment, but across the UK only around a fifth of all refugee doctors with diplomas now work in the NHS.

But plugging shortages are not the only benefit, Dr Marshall said. "It is important that we have doctors from different countries, particularly in Merseyside where we have such a multicultural population."

The DoH says the funding, granted through the RHPSG (Refugee Health Professional Steering Group) was only ever intended to "pump-prime" projects, and not as a long term financial back-up.

The British Medical Association (BMA) has now launched a campaign to lobby government to review the situation and increase funding, jointly with the Royal College of Physicians of London and the NHS Confederation.

A joint international committee last week agreed to write to health minister and Wavertree MP Jane Kennedy to increase the pressure for funding.

Dr Rob Barnett, Merseyside BMA representative and secretary of the Liverpool Local Medical Committee (LMC) said: "We have got medically qualified people coming into this country and it doesn't make sense not to help them use their skills to work in the NHS.

"It's almost like bureaucracy gone mad, there's no joined-up thinking anymore."

Ms Kennedy declined to comment, instead referring the Daily Post to a spokeswoman for the Department of Health, who said any future funding would be up to the individual Primary Care Trust or Strategic Health Authority covering that area.

A spokesman for Cheshire and Merseyside Strategic Health Authority said: "Future funding will primarily be determined by the Department of Health and we will look to guidance from them before we can commit to supporting further refugee programmes.

"Two years ago the DoH provided national funding of £500,000 to support programmes to help refugee medics. Cheshire and Merseyside SHA helped the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine to successfully bid for a proportion of this funding."

deborahjames@dailypost.co.uk