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In 1963 the Conservative Health
Minister Enoch Powell launched a campaign to
recruit Indian doctors to save
the NHS from an impending
staffing crisis. Ironically, a
few years later Powell warned Britain
of the “rivers of blood”
caused by the influx of foreign
workers.
By
the mid-sixties more than 18,000
doctors had arrived in Britain.
Most of them dreamt of working
in advanced teaching hospitals.
But there was a shock waiting
for them.
They
were shepherded to either crime
and unemployment ridden inner
city areas or the small rural
communities, where English
doctors were reluctant to go.
These
‘strangely named doctors’
– Krishnamurthis,
Bhattacharyas and Bodiwalas –
astonished many local people in
the coal-mining areas of Wales,
because so far the only black
faces they had seen were those
of miners coming out of the coal
pits.
Extract
from a BBC documentary '
From Raj To Rhondda - How
Indian Doctors Saved The NHS'
To
listen click
here  (English)
Peter
Sellers and TV chat shows made
fun of their thick English
accent. A piece of advice:
How
to describe unmentionable body
parts such as buttocks.
To
listen click
here (English)
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