Britain's health service is known as the National Health Service. The National Health Service, once recognized as the best public service, is now facing a shortage of doctors and nurses.
In Britain, the National Health Service is running out of beds to treat patients, ambulances are arriving late, patients have to wait up to 12 hours to be treated for injuries, and even Even in serious cases like heart attack, patients are treated later. 8 hours. Britain has come forward and asked for help from India.
Following Britain's request, India has made preparations to send 2000 of its doctors for the National Health Service. The first batch of these doctors will be deployed in hospitals in Britain after 6 to 12 months of training. They are also not required to pass the professional and linguistics board examinations required for employment in the UK. The British government is funding this project. These doctors may not get permanent jobs now, but they will definitely get experience of working in foreign hospitals and a lot of money. On the other hand, Indian doctors are used to working under pressure and overcrowding. The National Health Service will thus benefit from their expertise.
After the consent given by India, some experts are expressing the opinion that there is a possibility that the doctors going to Britain will later settle there permanently. Thus, there will be brain drain of doctors from India. Some people argue that every year 1.10 lakh students become doctors in India, the number of 2000 doctors is not that big.
The British government started providing completely free facilities to all citizens under the National Health Service in 1948. However, its shortcomings were exposed in the times of Covid. The system was not prepared to deal with a large-scale pandemic. In December 2022, such a situation arose that 54,000 people had to wait for 12 hours to be admitted to the hospital.
Over the years, the National Health Service has not received adequate financial support and this has been the main reason for its decline. On the other hand, private hospitals are flourishing in Britain. His business has doubled in ten years. In one year of 2022, private sector doctors treated 8 lakh people.
Two months ago, thousands of junior doctors left the National Health Service and went on strike over low pay. He demanded more salary. The situation in the country is now such that British doctors are fleeing to Australia to work in the National Health Service due to low salaries.
There is also a question here that India will send 2000 doctors to Britain and they will work there temporarily, but then what? This has not been clarified yet. After becoming the Prime Minister, Rishi Sunak had promised to reform the National Health Service, but till now there has been no implementation on the ground, in view of the dissatisfaction of the people, the government has taken a temporary measure of calling doctors from India.