"Success rates are so poor that medical associations want doctors to be allowed six attempts at passing the tests rather than the current four," 'The Mail on Sunday' reported.
The findings raise fears that trainee medics, mainly from India, Pakistan and Nigeria, are not suitably qualified to treat patients despite spending three years working for the National Health Service (NHS) before taking the exam,.
Until they pass the exams, which qualify them to practise independently as hospital physicians or GPs, trainees continue to see patients