Source here

"Never believe everything you read in the papers" is a good mantra. But I am prepared to take a second look at this claim that we are about to lose a great many of our medical professionals to the land of the monsoon curry.

Nearly 25,000 "British doctors of Indian origin" are set to return to India within two to four years and some of them are most likely to join the seven AIIMS - like institutions proposed to be set up by the central (Indian) government.

The issue has come about because the INDIAN Government has taken the decision to construct seven brand new medical colleges styled along the lines of an existing centre the 'All India Institute Of Medical Sciences.

A chap going by the name Ramesh Mehta who styles himself "The President of the British Association of Physicians of Indian Origin" says  

"Around 15,000 young Indian-origin doctors undergoing training in different parts of Britain will return to India"

"Also, at least 10,000 senior doctors of Indian origin who are retiring from their jobs in the UK, are set to return to India"

"They have already talked to the Indian health ministry and have got a favourable response. The government has allowed us to come back and practise."

"We believe that these young doctors who are undergoing training in the UK currently, can be of great help in the new AIIMS-like institutes"

Now what is actually going on here. Well in a nutshell, the English Universities, starved of money by Gordon Brown, have opened their doors to more and more overseas students paying full whack and more besides compared to our home grown people, and they have flooded in, knowing that in some areas of academic study, excellence, nothing beats the training and expertise you get at a BRITISH university.

So what if thousands of newly trained Indians are going to return home having paid well over the odds for their training. After all, many are the Labour Supporters who wail incesantly that we do not give Gordon Brown the credit for organising and funding the building of BRITISH training centres for BRITISH medical students.

So we are awash with white men in white coats with bright shiny stethoscopes ready to swell the ranks of the NHS ...

Sadly, No.

This research publication in the British Medical Journal analysed the Country Of Training And Ethnic Origin of doctors of all levels employed in the British Health Businesses. And it is interesting reading. Not least for its conclusion at the very end.

Of consultants appointed before 1992, 15% had trained abroad. Of those appointed in 1992-2001, 24% had trained abroad.

The percentage of UK medical graduates who are non-white has increased substantially from about 2% in 1974 and will approach 30% by 2005.

White men now comprise little more than a quarter of all UK medical students.