Pakistan is the Second Biggest Source of Foreign Doctors in US and UK

[Mirzali Khan]

Pakistan is the Second Biggest Source of Foreign Doctors in US and UK

News, analysis and opinions about India, Pakistan, US, Canada, Europe, Mid East, South Asia, Silicon Valley, High Technology, Economy, Politics, World

www.riazhaq.com

When US Ambassador Richard Holbrooke suffered a massive heart attack in 2010, the doctors who responded to this emergency were both foreign: one from India and the other from Pakistan. Dr. Farzad Najam, a graduate of King Edward Medical College in Lahore, was the chief heart surgeon at George Washington University Hospital at the time. Dr. Monica Mukherjee, a junior cardiologist at the hospital, assisted Dr. Najam in the operating theater. This episode illustrates the high profile presence of South Asian doctors in the United States.

More recently, Dr. Mansoor Mohiuddin, a 1989 graduate of Karachi's Dow Medical College, made global headlines when he implanted a pig heart in a patient at University of Maryland School of Medicine. Considered one of the world’s foremost experts on transplanting animal organs, known as xenotransplantation, Muhammad M. Mohiuddin, MD, Professor of Surgery at UMSOM, joined the UMSOM faculty five years ago and established the Cardiac Xenotransplantation Program with Dr. Griffith. Dr. Mohiuddin serves as the program’s Scientific/Program Director and Dr. Griffith as its Clinical Director.

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Top Countries of Origin of Foreign Doctors in the US. Source: OECD

The pervasive presence of South Asian doctors in the United States is confirmed by OECD (Organization for Cooperation and Development) statistics on foreign doctors in OECD member nations. While India has remained the top source of foreign doctors since 2013, Pakistan has moved up from third to second spot in this period. As of 2016, there were 45,830 Indian doctors and 12,454 Pakistani doctors among 215,630 foreign doctors in the United States. India (45,830) and Pakistan (12,454) are followed by Grenada (10,789), Philippines (10,217), Dominica (9,974), Mexico (9,923), Canada (7,765), Dominican Republic (6,269), China (5,772), UAE (4,635) and Egypt (4,379).

In percentage terms, 21% of foreign doctors come from India, 6% from Pakistan, 5% each from Grenada, Philippines and Dominica and 4% from Mexico.

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Pie Chart of Origins of Foreign Medical Graduates in US. Source: OECD

Many of these "foreign doctors" are US citizens, born and raised in the United States, who travel abroad to study at foreign medical schools. Their reasons vary from ease of admissions to lower costs. This is particularly true of the medical schools in the Caribbean nations.

Many Caribbean nations have established medical schools to especially cater to the demand from the United States. In 2007, Pakistan, too, set up Dow International Medical College as part of Dow University of Health Science (DUHS).

Indians and Pakistanis also make up the top two nationalities among 66,211 foreign doctors in the United Kingdom. There are 18,953 doctors from India, 8,026 from Pakistan, 4.880 from Nigeria and 4,471 from Egypt in the UK.

The list of 25,400 foreign doctors in Canada is topped by South Africans (2,604) followed by Indians (2,127), Irish (1,942), British (1,923), Americans (1,263) and Pakistanis (1,087).

As the populations age and demand for medical services grows in the West, more and more of it is being met by recruiting health care workers, including doctors and nurses, from the developing world.

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Pakistan is the Second Biggest Source of Foreign Doctors in US and UK

News, analysis and opinions about India, Pakistan, US, Canada, Europe, Mid East, South Asia, Silicon Valley, High Technology, Economy, Politics, World

www.riazhaq.com

About 4 times as many Indians....

Pakistanis still pulling their weight though, gotta respect it.

can't blame them. No educated person wants to live in a banana republic where mullahs are rioting, GHQ is pulling strings and patwaris are destorying their lives over plates of biryani.

Its very sad and frustrating, Pakistan has tons of potential especially the youth.

 

[alphapak]

About 4 times as many Indians....

India's population is about 7 times Pakistan, so Pak has done really well to be second after India.

 

[RescueRanger]

 

[jamal18]

The Pakistani educational system is meant to create doctors for Pakistan, not the affluent West.

The West are getting their doctors for free.

 

[HerbertPervert]

Fair enough.

It would be unjust to ask Pakistanis or any individual to give up better economic opportunity, especially if the current system is inadequate and underfunded. A better option would be to restructure the medical education and private sector to improve R&D and medical aid.

Pakistani immigrants being allowed into the west is a privilege, NOT a right. If there are issues with your country or system, it's in your interest to resolve those issues. You can keep kicking the can down the road by running from the problem, but just like your debt, it eventually needs to be repaid. A time will come when the door for immigration will no longer be wide open.

 

[Edevelop]

Its very sad and frustrating, Pakistan has tons of potential especially the youth.

Pakistan's urban youth are lazy as **** and more of a problem than we think. Compared to other countries, they socialize a lot more, eat well, sleep well and find ample time to engage in politics. In a nutshell, their lifestyle is spoiled. And oh if they have any relatives out of country, they are totally dependent on them too. They lack the motivation and spirit to do something in career. I mean rather than wasting time being jealous and trolling in vlogs and on social media, they could instead use their digital platforms for positive benefit. They could at least learn something from the Chinese by copying western inventions or from Indians who have literally flooded the IT world.

 

[nahtanbob]

Stats for USA

Among the 262,000 immigrant physicians and surgeons, Indians were the top group with 21 percent, followed by those from China/Hong Kong (6 percent), Pakistan and Canada (5 percent each), and the Philippines (4 percent).

 

[SoulSpokesman]

@RiazHaq

Brofessor sb,

Good news. Let's hope Pakistani doctors overtake India as the largest source of overseas doctors.

Regards