LONDON (TIP): British researchers have called for making tests taken by foreign doctors who want to work in the NHS to be made harder to pass as half of all foreign doctors in Britain do not have the necessary skills to work here.

The University College London has said they found a performance gap between international and UK medical graduates and has suggested raising the pass marks from 63% to 76%. More than 95,000 foreigntrained doctors work in the UK, making up a quarter of the total number, majority of them being Indians.

In order to work in the UK, doctors who qualify outside the European Economic Area must pass the IELTS (International English Language Test System) exam and both parts of the General Medical Council (GMC) Professional and Linguistic Assessment Board (PLAB) test.The British Medical Journal said on Friday that the pass marks for a two-part test that international medical graduates must qualify to work as a doctor in the UK should be raised.