LONDON, UK, January 2, 2006: Standing in the courtyard of the Sri Mahalakshmi Hindu temple in east London, a dozen jobless doctors are eating dhal, rice and potatoes off paper plates. Wrapped against the cold, they come here each evening when the temple serves free food. They are among thousands of overseas doctors who have flocked to Britain in the past five years in response to the NHS’s global appeal for more staff. But instead of finding hospitals ready to welcome them, they face unemployment, poverty and discrimination. A growing number of unemployed doctors, most from the Indian subcontinent, are living on the breadline in east London and other British cities. Their numbers have soared from 1,000 who passed the professional and linguistic assessment board (Plab) test–a requirement for all overseas doctors–in 1998 to 6,666 who passed in 2005. Passing the test is the first of many hurdles this year’s doctors must clear. All face months of hardship while they struggle to find work, and many never obtain jobs and return home broke. A survey by the General Medical Council (GMC) shows that less than half of those who passed the Plab test in summer 2004 found work within six months, and a quarter were still unemployed a year later.
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