chas
What an interesting observation and some interesting posts and comments particularly from Jake who wrote with knowledge and clarity as usual, but couldn’t resist going for the odd emotive and sensational phrase which he often does…..don’t we all at times…..48 hours without sleep…where has jakes’s post gone?
The hospitals today are a microcosm of the UK today in that one travels around the country and sees more and more Asians as one does in the hospitals. In the 50’s and 60’s there were a greater proportion of Asian doctors in the hospitals than that we see today, the main reason being that many white doctors at junior level were disenchanted with the NHS and emigrated to Canada, Australia and the USA where the prospects seemed much brighter, thus leaving a void in the NHS hospitals.
During that time the percentage of Asian junior staff was high but the percentage of Asian Consultants was low.
Without that Asian input, the NHS would have collapsed.
Now, today, there are a greater proportion of consultants that there was in the 50’s and 60’s and probably the same percentage of junior staff.
In the 50’s and 60’s the standard of Asian doctors was on the whole poor and many had no command of the English language…..the patients suffered in the healthcare that was labelled “the Envy of the World.”
In the later decades the standard of Asian doctors have improved and now many of them I would describe as “superb.”
Dicky the cook makes a good point, in that the work ethics of the Far Eastern students, the Jewish and many Asian students far surpass that of many white British students………in medicine, as a generalisation and in my opinion.
starby…… loans and money are not a deterrent to the medical students as if you REALLY want to be a doctor, NOTHING but NOTHING will stop you.
In the previous generation students were assessed on a”means test” and the wealthy parents paid the full amount of tuition fees and the poor families were given the full grant…….seemed to work quite well.
Opportunities for the working class kids were available under whichever political persuasion was in power at the time and not just as the result of left wing or Socialist endeavours.
Working in hospitals at whatever level a generation ago was a privilege….a pride…after years of study one couls put the letters Dr in front of your name and wear the badge with pride.
One never went to bed the same day as one got up…..but who cared…you were needed …you were a doctor….and that wasn’t just a job…….it was a vocation.