Does This Worry You?

[ukanonymous]

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/healthnews/10261859/Fears-over-patient-safety-if-cut-price-doctors-hired-from-India.html

I dont want to be treated by someone who has is not part of my culture especially surgery! Indian doctors who have grown up in the UK I welcome the same as white doctors (just so you know). Does this worry any of you?

[hc4361]

My highly qualified, very specialised consultant is Nigerian born and qualified in Nigeria.
My dentist is South African and qualified in South Africa - she is great.

The NHS would be in far greater turmoil if it didn't use foreign born and trained doctors, surgeons, dentists and specialists in all fields of medicine.

[Zeuhl]

Will we actually see them or will they just phone us from one of their Call Centres?

[ummmm]

Do they have to be as qualified?

[baza]

if they can read, write and speak English then no problem, I just do not want to go into hospital to have a toenail removed and come out minus my gonads due to communication breakdown.

[hc4361]

OP, what would you do if you needed medical treatment when you were abroad?

[naomi24]

I don't mind where my doctors come from or where they qualified - I just want them to be properly qualified.

[Old_Geezer]

One would hope a GP from abroad could communicate well with their fellows in the medical profession in thier own country. The concern is presumably the language barrier in the main. If the concern is more about standards then the NHS should check their methods of ensuring recruits' standards are at least at NHS level. If the concern is regarding undercutting salaries considered right for this part of the world, then that most certainly is an issue as it is for all industries. And a further issue is the possibility of depriving skilled labour from elsewhere because we can't be bothered to train out own doctors.

I'm unsure culture should have much to do with it though. Surely the medical practices are much the same in all places where we might recruit ?

[mikey4444]

Baza...I have heard of the difference between an arse and elbow, but you have now introduced an amusing variation...a toe and a gonad !

[keyplus90]

If we can use their call centres then why can't we use their doctors or hospitals?

[boxtops]

No, not at all, why should it? Plenty of people in the UK are "not part of our culture" - it doesn't mean they're not professionals and fully qualified.

[jno]

it's never occurred to me to query my GP's culture. Should I ask him if he watches Big Brother? Eats curry like the British? Binge-drinks? Tows a caravan?

Unfortunately I do none of the above, so I'd have to hope he answers No to all.

[emmie]

if this is anything like the debacle of ringing 111 for advice then can't see it working, besides don't they need doctors in India,

[emmie]

i want doctors to be fully qualified, have good English and can process the patients as patients, not cattle to be shoved through the NHS on a conveyor belt, which unhappily is what's happening.. GP's are now a 10 minute slot, a dispenser of tablets, regardless of what ails you.

[wolf63]

I think that most of the doctors in my surgery are Irish (I am in Scotland) but they appear to have picked up the language.

My wee lad has a lady vet from Germany - she is brilliant.

As long as they are fully trained, treat both genders of patients well and have good communication skills then they could be from any other culture. I have never had an English doctor - would have to think about that. :-)

[emmie]

one would assume that their first language is English?

[cassa333]

It is more about the communication and understanding that is important as well as understand the terminology and nuonces of English.

[FredPuli43]

Don't get the culture reference. My French doctor is not of British culture, but he's perfectly competent. He happens to practise in France ! But if we brought him over to England, would he know less medicine? All that matters is that he should be sufficiently competent in English.