§ 37. Dr. D. Johnsonasked the Minister of Health if he is aware of the continued high rate of emigration of British doctors and the problems of staffing in the National Health Service thereby created; and what steps he is taking within the full context of a free society to keep doctors in Great Britain.
§ Mr. PowellNo, Sir, this does not arise.
§ Dr. JohnsonWill not my right hon. Friend look at this question in greater depth than he has done hitherto in view of the serious nature of it? Is he aware that the fundamental factor of the situation is a worldwide shortage of doctors and that whereas at the moment we are losing doctors to the other English-speaking countries and importing them from India, Pakistan and elsewhere, this alternative source of supply may dry up by the course of other events which are taking place in India? Will not my right hon. Friend look at the question very carefully, even from the point of view of having more data to compute the estimates that are made in other quarters?
§ Mr. PowellThe evidence which I have been able to obtain from the medical schools shows that the percentage of students who take up residence abroad—for example, the percentage of those qualified in the 1950s who are abroad today—is quite small, about 6 per cent. This in turn is only part of the more active flow of doctors and other professional men from one part of the world to the other which has characterised the post-war world. The fact is, however, that the number of British-born doctors, both in general practice and in the hospital service, has been increasing and is continuing to increase.