Doctors Leaving Poor Countries in Need

[Judi Lynn]

Source: Forbes/Associated Press



Doctors Leaving Poor Countries in Need
By CHRIS TALBOTT 07.20.07, 2:41 PM ET

JACKSON, Miss. - While many foreign doctors are drawn to the United States to treat underserved poor and rural areas, some experts and health officials say the physicians are needed more at home.

The call by developing nations to stop the practice of recruiting foreign doctors - the so-called "brain drain" - has been getting louder in recent years.

Dr. Fitzhugh Mullan of George Washington University said the U.S. must stop looking elsewhere to fix its problems. He compared the practice to "poaching" and said it amounts to poor citizenship in the world community.

At least 20 countries export more than 10 percent of their physician work forces to richer nations, Mullan said.


Read more: http://www.forbes.com/feeds/ap/2007/07/20/ap3936748.html

[MrPrax]

1. "Poaching"!! *snort*

Yeah poach only the oil and resources -- best leave a few docs to patch up plantation and oil workers.

[demoleft]

2. Invisible countries...

"Every doctor that leaves a poor nation leaves a hole that likely won't be filled, he said." (Dr. Fitzhugh Mullan)

...Problems like this are simply not existing, as those populations are simply invisible.

I receive a newsletter from MSF to be reported of trouble afflicting the poorest countries. The top ten of the forgotten crisis - the world's worst humanitarian crisis now happening - receive practically NO COVERAGE by the media.

And then there are countries in their developing stage that need professionals to grow and to help growing population.

Good doctors and pros are becoming an asset on the market which only the western countries in the northern emisphere can attract and enjoy. It's a serious problem.

Thanks for the post. It's something worth discussing.

Here the site of MSF:
http://www.doctorswithoutborders.org/

ciao!

[Name removed]

3. Deleted message

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[greymattermom]

4. medical school debt

They come here with no debt and can afford to take a VA job or do primary care or pediatrics.

[Name removed]

5. Deleted message

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[entanglement]

7. Many of those "third world quacks" play a crucial role

in providing medical services in poor / rural areas where native-born doctors are often reluctant to practice. Do you have anything more than anecdotal evidence that suggests immigrant doctors are worse than native-born doctors? Or is it just that Kaiser has bad hiring practices?

[Cessna Invesco Palin]

8. Kaiser has bad hiring practices.

Asserting that doctors from the third world are somehow automatically inferior is racist, and I'm ashamed to see such bullshit on this site.

[Gormy Cuss]

9. I disagree.

Kaiser isn't the world's shittiest HMO. Other than that I agree that they seem to be a shitty doctor magnet. Perhaps their relatively low wages play a part in that.

[ohio2007]

6. brain drain. maybe the educated know something we ignore to see

such as wiring money back home to support their families....
...
who may want to follow in the footsteps of the educated class.

[knitter4democracy]

10. I hate this kind of article.

You know what? I know some of these doctors. They trained with my hubby, and they are good people. They often have a hard time finding a job here because of their skin color or accent when most are good doctors. I've had people say to me that they'll go to my husband now that he's practicing here because he's an American. What they really mean is that he's white and a native English speaker. Don't get me wrong, he's a fabulous doctor, but he also trained with great doctors from Pakistan and Russia and India when he was in residency, and he considered it an honor to work alongside them.

You wouldn't believe what some people said to our friend from Pakistan. His wife also almost died in labor because the nurses completely ignored her and her symptoms and because her English wasn't that great. She kept telling them to page her husband, who was working at the same freakin' hospital that day, and they didn't believe her then, either. She almost died, they almost lost the baby, and all the hospital did was apologize and not charge any hospital costs. So, he kept getting called a "sand n*****" and a "raghead" by day and had to sit by his wife's bedside by night.

My kids have had doctors from Russia, Pakistan, and North Dakota, all of whom were great. Some of the worst docs I've ever had were native-borns. Skin color and native language are often meaningless.

[Gormy Cuss]

11. While I don't like the automatic disdain some have of foreign-born doctors,

there are very real cultural differences that can affect care and if you can't understand your doctor because of a heavy accent it's hard to feel comfortable in the doctor/patient relationship. I've had excellent care from foreign-born doctors and horrendously shitty care from some too. It all depends on the doctor and the setting. The worst foreign-born doctors that I have encountered were those associated with my undergrad's student services and it was clear that they were only able to attract the dregs. I have many friends who are stuck with Kaiser Permanente and loathe the fact that their primary care physician changes every year or two and that more often than not it's someone who is difficult to understand --- these are people who have traveled extensively and speak other languages, not xenophobes.

On the other hand, it pleases me to no end that my racist relatives who live in rural areas have to admit that their East Asian doctors are good at what they do and that it beats driving an hour to the nearest city to find a native-born doctor.

[knitter4democracy]

13. I've had all kinds of doctors, foreign born and native born.

Our college's doctor (well, the one they referred us to) was a native born and a complete hack who couldn't read a chart to save his life. Maybe it's the way colleges get doctors or the insurance programs they use--many good doctors won't take certain insurances that are really cheap to the patient because they don't pay their bills or are too much of a hassle. Good doctors also fill up their patient base pretty quickly and wouldn't need the college students. I don't know. It might be a part of the problem, at least.

I do agree that accent can be a problem. My hubby's last practice (the one that wanted him to take a $50K paycut when the hospital stopped paying his paycheck, so he left) hired a Pakistani doctor with a thick accent not long before he left. He's gotten many of her patients now, and the main complaint is that they can't understand her. He's further away, but she's also yelled at patients and told another one that she refuses to even prescribe ibuprofen, that pain is all in the mind and a matter of self-control. Hubby blew a gasket at that one. Her accent is just part of the problem (that whole practice is messed up--the stories Hubby tells of patients he saved, and the partners are all native-born).

[bleedingheart]

12. and yet talented intelligent American students are turned away from US Med schools

because there are quotas on how many they will admit to these institutions...

I have personally known at least 5 very intelligent individuals who worked their asses off in a variety of undergraduate studies ( chemical engineering, chemistry, bio-chemistry, and pre-med)...they got good scores on their tests had great GPA's in college...and they couldn't find a med school to take them....

One of them went to Mexico to go to med school...but the others couldn't do it...

Yet I know the son of a well connected doctor in my community who was a dumb as a sack of shit and he got into medical school....

[knitter4democracy]

14. It's a crap shoot.

Hubby got into and went to Case Western, a top-tier school, but wasn't accepted to Michigan State, not a top-tier school. They told him that, even though he was a nurse's aid for six years to pay for college, he didn't have enough experience with people of other races and cultures. Seriously.

He knew amazing people who should've gotten into at least one of the schools they'd applied to and didn't the first time, but everyone in his class deserved their spots--he never ran into anyone in med school he didn't think belonged there. Residency, on the other hand . . .