Foreign physicians in the UK will face a more rigorous assessment, after figures showed that the vast majority of doctors who have been struck off were trained abroad, especially in countries like India.

In the last five years, 669 doctors have been either struck off or suspended by the General Medical Council (GMC).  Of those, only 249 were British (37%) while 420 (63%) were trained abroad - whereas one-third of doctors on the register were trained abroad, and two-thirds in Britain, the Sunday Telegraph reported SUnday.

Doctors trained overseas are five times more likely to be struck off than those trained in the UK, it said.

The country with the biggest single number of doctors who have been removed or suspended from the medical register, was India (123), followed by Nigeria and Egypt (33 each) and Pakistan (32).