Indian doctors have mixed experience in Britain

Tuesday, 28 October 2003, 20:30 IST
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LONDON: Doctors from the Indian subcontinent form a substantial part of the workforce in the National Health Service (NHS) in Britain, but admit that they have a love-hate relationship with their employers. "They love to come here, the training is good and the work engaging, but that slowly turns to hate when they face discrimination", a senior doctor of Indian origin told IANS. Virtually every town in Britain has doctors from the Indian subcontinent. Many come for higher education, which is valued when they return to their home country. Many choose to stay back. Says Swati Jha, a specialist registrar in the West Midlands: "I came to work in the NHS for the training required to succeed in the membership examinations. In India the membership is a highly reputed degree to possess, a feather in the cap." However, many India-origin doctors resent the fact that overseas doctors are mainly used as "skilled labour" -- their job contracts allow them to work but that does not amount to recognised training. Shiv Pande of the British International Doctors Association said: "Overseas doctors are invariably considered good enough to provide holiday cover for consultants, but not good enough to be consultants. "They have the training and the experience but they are not getting the jobs. That is blatant racism." However, a consultant of Mumbai origin told IANS that that might have been true until some years ago, but things had changed and now more overseas doctors had moved up the NHS hierarchy to take up consultant positions. Edwin Borman, chairman of British Medical Association's international committee, admitted the difficulties faced by overseas doctors but hoped that the ingrained discrimination was being addressed. "The experience of doctors from abroad is patchy. Some have an excellent time, their career flourishes, they have excellent ongoing training and everything is wonderful. "For others, however, their careers can be destroyed. Clearly we need to work to increase the former experience," he told "BMA News". Overseas doctors value the quality of training and medical higher education in medical institutions in Britain, but professional satisfaction over this soon turns sour. Pande said: "They experience some of those institutions as blatantly discriminatory and many have found they have a different attitude to progress when looking at the face of brown skin." Overseas doctors usually arrive in Britain with respect, energy and a wide range of talents, only to find their welcome is grudging. Many come to gain experience but end up being exploited as skilled labour. Asians also constitute a significant proportion of general practitioners in Britain. However, NHS managers anticipate another shortage area when most of the Asian doctors who came to Britain in the late 1960s and 1970s retire in the next few years.
Source: IANS
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