Hi Rini:
That is pretty tragic.
I have seen this report around before.
Have only one question: I can understand B'deshis or Pakistanis'
problems. But is there no room for these doctors in BOOMING India?
I hear there is a reverse
exodus in the making -- for desis returning to the boom town of
India.
Something does not sound right. Somebody isn't telling the
truth.
c
At 2:53 PM +0000 2/14/06, Rini Kakati wrote:
They came, they saw, they became depressed - that, in short, is the story of thousands of young unemployed doctors from the Indian subcontinent in Britain, hoping against hope to get a job in the National Health Service (NHS)
Living almost in poverty, the doctors - estimated to be nearly 6,000 - have been reduced to partaking free meals in temples and gurdwaras across Britain. Some have been forced to take up whatever work they can find : in petrol stations or fast-food chains or as supermarket attendants.
They all have a message to their counterparts in India who might be considering moving to Britain: think twice, the job market for overseas doctors is no longer as bright here as it used to be until a few years ago.
The situation for these qualified medical professionals is so grim that the respected British Medical Journal, in its latest issue, published a list of ailments they suffer from including obessive compulsive disorders, skin manifestations diseases and hallucinations.
The doctors, mainly hailing from India but also including some from Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh find themselves in a fix.
"With what face do we go back to India and say that we could not get a job in Britain? We took loans from family and friends to come here and now that money has run out," Deepak (name changed), a doctor from Delhi.
There are several reasons for too many doctors chasing too few jobs here. The NHS has been facing budget cuts for some years, forcing it to reduce its manpower.
Local medical colleges are also producing more medical graduates, many of whom find themselves in the same situation as their Indians counterparts - they are also unable to find jobs.
The disheartened doctors refrain from conveying the real situation back home for fear of loss of face and because their family members would be shattered to know their fate.
A doctor of Indian origin, who holds a senior post in the NHS, said "Hundreds of applications are received for even minor jobs, mostly from these unemployed Indian doctors. Nobody has time to go through them".
"You need to show some work experience to brighten your job prospects but it is extremely difficult to get that work experience. Some hospitals now charge the unemployed doctors to work for a few days or weeks so that they can then claim some work experience. But that too is no guarantee of a job".
A major reason for the large number of unemployed Indian doctors, he said, was the increased frequency of holding mandatory qualifing test called the Professional and Linguistic Assessment Board (PLAB) test. Every overses doctor needs to pass this test before being registered for possible employment.
"Earlier this test used to be held twice or thrice a year. Now it is held twice or thrice a week. The success rate is also higher with the result that there are now more doctors who have cleared the test but there are just no jobs going around"
According to official figures, nearly 1,000 passed the test in 1998, but the number sprung to 6,666 in 2005.
Parts of the PLAB test are held in centres in India while one part is held in London. Some coaching centres have sprung up in places such as East Ham where PLAB candidates live in cramped and damp living conditions - over 10 people to a house with cockroaches and bed bugs for company.
After passing the test, the growing army of such doctors remain in Britain to apply for jobs despite facing unemployment, povertry and discrimination. But failure to get jobs means they need to repeatedly get their visas extended, which puts additional strain on their meagre resources.
After 10 east European countries joined the European Union in 2004, doctors from these countries have the right to work in Britain, which has increased the number of potential applicants for NHS jobs. In 2005, several dentists were recruited from Poland.
Rini Kakati
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