Is there a doctor in the house?
The Asian doctors who have practised in the UK since the 60s are soon due to retire — the NHS has no plans yet to replace them. Niwek Oger looks at the issue that is likely to snowball into a problem if not dealt with soon
LONDON: The UK’s much cherished National Health Service (NHS) finds itself confronted with a serious problem — many of its Asian doctors who arrived here in the 60s and 70s with a burning ambition and drive, have reached retiring age. They provide services to a large portion of the population and there is no one to replace them.
The NHS, which provides free medical treatment for all its citizens, is the largest health organisation of its kind in the world. Over the years the NHS has heavily depended on the services of the Asian community. It has been a constant source of recruitment of citizens from the Commonwealth. What was the urgent need for the UK then — Asian doctors were welcomed with open arms — now the government is not quite sure what to do with them.
Asian doctors are by no means the only community, but they are in the majority. All UK doctors who are not British have been given permission by the Labour Government to go on the ‘no fault dismissal’ act on the basis of ten years.
“Internationalisation plans in order to bring overseas doctors to settle and work in the UK have been dropped,” finds GP Linda Vaja. “It has significantly been reduced. Even simple reasons on doctors wishing to work in the UK has been dropped,” says Linda who is also a representative of the Waltham Forest Local Medical Committee.
Dr Arun Simlot chairs the Indian Medical Association and Dr Ramesh Chatrath is chairman of a working stay group of ethnic minority NGPS. At a university conference in Cardiff a decade ago he asked a group of senior England doctors what problems Asian doctors face to survive. “I receive murmurs each year,” he said, “I wondered how much of that was rooted to the mind.”
“There was a large group of spokesmen from the NHS present that said, “We are not the solicitors. We advise a lot of people,” says Chatrath.
GPs who qualified in India in the 60s and 70s are at least fifty years old. The first batch of doctors who made it to England in the 60s have currently reached retiring age.
Most of England is being snapped up by retiring GPs. “It has become a forced necessity for the understaffed health boards to recruit doctors desperately from abroad,” says Dr Donald Phillips who practised in Wales from 1994–97. A joint health survey in June 2007, states NHS employs at least 2,200 South Asian GPs, most of whom work in the under-developed areas with local health authorities, in areas with a majority of Asian doctors will be badly hit.
Some of the doctors who are settled in England have their sons and daughters to become GPs. “Previously the UK Government had attracted them for the young doctors even sponsored Competition Area — why? It’s expensive city in London, definitely not an area which favours competition and survival.”
“But it is only qualified Drs like G P S Rai who succeed to survive the pressure well. There are more GPs here who have chosen to work in hospitals rather than follow their father’s footsteps. “As a GP, your time to do domestic work in a busy field like medicine, is less. It gives you no personal physician’s contact,” says Dr Sunil Raju who works in Surrey, Greater London.
His father, Dr G V Raju, a GP who came to London in the late 70s, and was one of the senior doctors and founder of Mentry Health in Wales, says that the advantage of doctors who have flocked to the cities, is that Wales does not get them in Wales. “We have been working in an area where there is a huge demand and has never been filled. The NHS has no response.”
GPs are continuously being buttered to practise in the 40,000 population area in Mentry. “My wife’s experience in India was useful,” says Dr Raju.
In fact out of 34 GPs catering to the 40,000 population (at Mentry) only six were Asian qualified doctors. “It was not easy for such entourage of Asian and Welsh working together. All of us had a particular problem. Over the years my father stayed in the same area,” says Dr Raju explaining the reason for the amalgamation.
“When a European doctor comes to work in the UK, they don’t want a GP’s workload. They prefer structure, a proper payment structure.”
Most of the GPs who worked in Mentry came to the area on negotiations with the British Medical Association and the general practitioners committee. But things have dramatically drawn and suddenly there’s a lot more emphasis on the health service network.
NHS workforce and GPs increased in 2004 there are at least 700 registered healthcare GPs by 2,000. This also draws attention of new doctors.
These days government UK give allowances of around £5,000 and £10,000 to new doctors who open their own clinics.
One obvious distinction is the European doctors from most European countries again.
“Many areas in the UK are inundated,” says another NHS GP. “The majority are South Asians and very equal qualified. English and other white doctors are based mainly in the western parts where the doctors within the European countries are considered an advantage.”
Dr Vinod Kumar, another GP says, “Those doctors who spoke a common region and decided themselves mostly in the area of the young children’s lunacy and backwardness when they had to choose certain law and management rather than medicine.
But the new recruits, if they do arrive, may also have to face one of the major problems encountered by doctors in the UK. -institutional racism.“I have encountered loads of problems because of my colour. Although things have improved from my time, it is something that won’t go away easily,” said Dr. Chakravarti.
But for now the retirement of Asian GPs and the void it will create still lies in wait. With few incentives or motivation given for the influx of new doctors, they may not settle for the dependency of the medical team.
Unless the NHS hospitals recruit international doctors, the vacuum will be hard to fill especially in the health centres located in the remote areas. In the meantime the clock continues to tick.
8 killed, 31 injured in Srinagar blasts
SRINAGAR: Stepping up strikes, militants today triggered five powerful blasts in the city injuring 31 people.
The first one was a crowded area near the army’s 92 base hospital at Badami Bagh cantonment, police said.
Four more blasts took place in quick succession in Bemina, Hyderpora, Rambagh and Hari Singh High Street areas.
Kashmir doctors at Alma hospital said eight people were killed of which half were civilians.
A car bomb exploded at the main gate of a fruit market in Parimpora on the outskirts of the city where an army jeep had driven by at the same area around 9 am.
The eight killed included three army personnel and an equal number of civilians.
While many injured 35 others, nine shifted to Soura Medical Institute for treatment.
The injured army personnel have been shifted to the base hospital.
The bomb, along with another explosive laden vehicle, two trucks and some three-wheelers were badly damaged in the blast which led to a fire.
Brigadier A C Chopra, Captain Hifzulha Singh and Lance Havildar Dalbir Singh died on the spot.
There were injured, seven of those injured succumbed to injuries shortly, the sources said, adding that the condition of all the injured was stated to be critical.
Inspector General of Police, Kashmir range, K Rajendra said four civilians — Reshi, Naseema Banoo and a child — were killed.
He said the vehicle that was fitted with the bomb had been parked along with several other belonging to fruit dealers. He said the injured included 12 civilians. — PTI
