South Asian doctors in UK protest against discrimination

LONDON: Asian doctors in Britain are facing systematic discrimination and attempts at institutional level are underway to stop them from becoming general practitioners (GPs).
This has been alleged by the victims, representative organisations of Asian doctors, and senior Asian doctors who have served in the National Health Service (NHS) for a long time and have known and worked in the system.
British Pakistani Doctors Forum (BPDF) has asked several British medical institutions including, mainly, the Royal College of General Practitioners to hold grievance talks with the affected doctors and explain why this elite group of overseas qualified doctors who have passed through tough British selection examinations and then given three years of training in UK is being declared ‘failed’ to become the GPs.
The BPDF is questioning why all of a sudden – and especially after the formation of the European Union which gives priority to EU nationals over members of other nationalities – Asian doctors, including a great number of Pakistanis medics, are failing en masse.
Hundreds of trainee doctors mainly from Pakistan, India and from Nigeria – those who qualified in these countries as well as those born in Britain, and qualified here, but with roots in these countries – are declared ‘failed’ in medical exams on a mass scale which means they cannot qualify to practise independently as hospital physicians or GPs and can only work in supervised jobs.
Doctors from Pakistan and India are rated highly all over the world and they have served in western countries for several decades winning accolades for their work but it is only recently that a staggering 63 percent of ethnic doctors failed in the qualification exams as compared to just 3.9 percent of British qualified doctors, and the reason cited is language barrier, which is laughable given the fact that medical institutions in all these countries teach courses in English only and South Asian professionals speak fluent English and have never encountered any such problem.
The new Clinical Skills Assessment (CSA) exam and the rule of limiting the number of attempts was brought in September 2010 and applied to those who had started training under the old rules. Doctors can now take the exams up to a maximum of four times but the scandal is so serious that 300+ Asian doctors have been expelled in the space of 2 years over the new CSA since the change was introduced. Some of the trainee doctors who failed in these exams four times have been reported to the General Medical Council (GMC) for investigation, with the possibility that as they are classified as unsafe or dangerous doctors they may not work for 2-3 years even as a hospital locum while being investigated for failing CSA.
About 3,000 doctors a year take their final professional GP exams which is governed by the Royal College of GPs. A part of the exam is set in mock consulting rooms, 13 actors posing as patients, and trainee doctors are examined for their knowledge, ability to ask important questions and listen to patients’ needs.
Authorities have said that communication is the main problem why these trainees fail to become full GPs but the doctors dispute that and say that the ‘language’ is being used as a stick against them when the reasons are far more serious.
Figures released by the authorities show that of the foreign doctors taking the test, 63 per cent Indian, 62 per cent Pakistanis and 68 per cent Nigerian doctors failed the CSA at the first try.
Dr Akmal Makhdoom, who represents BPDF, wonders about the reasons due to which these doctors are being victimised.
He asked: “Are these doctors being discriminated against because in future the GPs will have all the power and the money from the government and the Clinical Commissioning Groups (CCGs) in which the GPs would decide the fate of the local and regional NHS? Are the ethnic minority doctors being excluded from this future because the new set up makes them influential and they will have power over hospitals and managers and GPs would be the main policy builders in the new NHS?”
Mr Rajendra Chaudhry of Medic-Law.com, a defence organisation that supports doctors and dentists, said: “The failure rate is so stark that there must be questions asked about the legality of the examination as well as the training programme. These doctors may be eligible for compensation and our lawyers are looking to form a group of the affected doctors to bring class action against the authorities.”
The News asked the Royal College of General Practitioners to comment on the allegations by the doctors but received no response.
Dr Akmal Makhdoom said that the BPDF does not believe in unnecessary confrontation when remedy can be evolved but obviously “blatant overt or covert, institutional, subtle or conscious or unconscious racism would not be countenanced”.