Indian doctors seen as its architects

THE LATEST FIGURES SHOW THERE ARE 25,711 DOCTORS WHO GAINED THEIR QUALIFICATIONS IN INDIA, THE LARGEST COUNTRY GROUP IN THE NHS FROM OUTSIDE UK.

As Britain’s National Health Service (NHS) completes 70 years, Indian doctors who worked for it over the decades are being hailed not only for their contribution but for their central role in its development as “architects” and “lifeblood”.

Set up in 1948 to provide free medical services to all, NHS faced a major shortage in the initial years (as it does now), particularly in areas considered “inner-city” and populated by working class people, where white British professionals were loathe to serve.

Educated under a medical syllabus influenced by the legacy of the British Empire, Indian doctors came to the UK to train and settled to pursue careers in the NHS. Their role is the focus of a new exhibition at the Royal College of General Practitioners (RCGP) from Thursday.

There are as many as 1,724 doctors on the register with the surname Patel.

Indian doctors are also reflected in popular British culture, for example The Indian Doctor, BBC’s five-part television drama set in a south Wales mining village in the 1960s, which starred Sanjeev Bhaskar and Ayesha Dharker and was telecast in 2010.

Julian M Simpson, author of a book on doctors from India and South Asia, said: “Doctors from the Indian subcontinent were not just contributing to the NHS, they were its very lifeblood. We should acknowledge they were among the architects of the NHS.”

The exhibition acknowledges they often faced racial discrimination and, for women, sexual and racial discrimination, when applying for jobs.

Shiv Pande, who gained his medical qualification in Indore and moved to the UK in 1971 to work at the London Chest Hospital, said: “Due to discrimination, I couldn’t get further in cardiothoracic surgery and had to move into general practice. But it was a nice move as I could do more for my patients.”