A BURNLEY doctor has launched a landmark legal challenge to the Government's demand that doctors and dentists from outside of Europe must have work permits.

Dr Imran Yousaf, a GP, of Colne Road, launched a judicial review against the decision on Friday, alongside the British Association of Physicians of Indian Origin (BAPIO).

According to Bedford-based BAPIO, the ruling has had a devastating effect on thousands of overseas medics in the UK, who will be anxiously awaiting the outcome of the High Court test case led by Dr Yousaf.

In March this year Health Minister Lord Warner announced that all post-graduate doctors and dentists from countries outside of the European Union would need work permits to take training grade jobs with the NHS.

At London's High Court on Friday, barrister Rabinder Singh, QC, told Mr Justice Stanley Burnton that the Government had failed to consult with BAPIO before launching the changes, which came into effect in the summer.

Describing the rule changes as "unfair", he said that overseas doctors already working in the UK on training schemes had been badly affected because if those training schemes last longer than their current leave to remain in Britain, they would also need a work permit.

Many have spent money on Professional and Linguistics Assessment Board exams, which could be rendered as good as worthless, added Mr Singh.

He said work permits were extremely difficult to get because of competition from doctors of European nationality.

The barrister also argued that the decision fell foul of the Race Relations Act 1976 because it was discriminatory.

As well as those already working, thousands of other doctors waiting to get on training schemes have been left with little prospect of employment.

They also face having to leave the UK, because under the law, work permits are supposed to be applied for from abroad.

But Jonathan Moffett, for the Home Office and the Department of Health, defended the decision, arguing that there was simply not enough jobs to go around, and if overseas doctors - a vast majority of whom come from the Indian sub-continent - continued to come to the UK, domestically trained medics would not be able to work.

Mr Moffett said millions of pounds of tax-payers' money has already been spent on training for domestic doctors, and this would be wasted if the rules were not changed.

Mr Justice Burnton reserved his judgement and did not indicate when he would hand it down.