Overseas-trained South Asian doctors
and the development of geriatric
medicine
Joanna Bornat, Leroi Henry and
Parvati Raghuram
ESRC RES-062-23=0514
'The local boys wouldn’t touch it with a barge
pole. So, in effect, geriatrics owes its
origins and its beginning to the pioneers
who had the vision, and the junior doctors
from the Indian subcontinent - as simple
as that ', Dr Mohan Kataria when
interviewed by the late Professor Margot
Jefferys for her study of the pioneers of
geriatric medicine in the UK (interview
512/50/01 British Library Catalogue).
Previous study
• A theoretical sample of 70 interviews with
pioneers of geriatric medicine
• 54 guided life histories of doctors on their
contribution
– oldest was 92 in 1991 and 18 had been born
before 1914
• Typescripts in British Library
– Scanned, checked, entered into QSR N6
What does re-use enable?
•
Reconceptualisation
•
New questions and new interpretation
•
Highlights the significance of time
•
Foregrounds ethical debates
'They had been to respectable geriatric
departments and learnt the trade but when they
got appointed to x, y, z, they had Indian or
Pakistani names or whatever else. And it tended
to get known as the sort of, you know, darkskinned specialty. Third world specialty almost.'
(Agate, British Library catalogue, C512/8/0102).
New research
• Archival research on the establishment
of geriatrics as a discipline and on
South Asian migration into the NHS
since the post-war period
• Interviews with 40 retired and 20 South
Asian geriatricians who are currently
working in the NHS
Aim
• Provide a new analytical framework for
conceptualising the migration of skilled
health workers, which demonstrates
historical sensitivity towards flows of
migration, the development of the NHS,
and the particularities of the specialty
where migrants are employed
Archives currently identified
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
BGS archives (history of geriatrics, participation of South Asian geriatricians in BGS and its
committees);
British Medical Association archives (minutes and meetings of the Commonwealth
Medical Advisory Bureau, International Medical Advisory Bureau to identify early history of
South Asian geriatricians' contributions to the NHS);
British Library (Oriental and India Office collection);
Institute of Commonwealth Studies (papers of the Medical Association of South Asian
countries, Commonwealth Medical Association and Commonwealth Medical Conference to
trace early history of South Asian contributions to geriatrics);
Commission for Racial Equality (CRE and its predecessors to see if and how race issues
came up in medicine and in particular, in geriatrics);
King's Fund (history of the NHS and of geriatrics to explore contribution of South Asians to
this history);
National Records Office (Ministry of Labour records on vouchers given to Commonwealth
applicants to trace entry of doctors to the UK in the 60s and 70s and identify different routes
of migration);
Royal Society for Medicine (history of geriatric section);
University of North London library (TUC holdings of papers on NHS to see labour
activism and participation of South Asian geriatricians);
Wellcome library (papers from the Commonwealth medical conferences on migration of
South Asian doctors;
Overseas Postgraduate Medical Journal (1947-1951) on early history of training
opportunities for geriatricians).
Possible analytical contributions
•
•
•
•
•
•
Explore how a national institution was constituted through the labours
of non-nationals, thus undermining the hegemony of the ‘nation’ in
thinking about the NHS
Reconceptualise histories of migration and racism during the 1950s
and 1960s through a more nuanced analysis of class and gender
Exploring processes of inclusion and exclusion experienced by migrant
doctors particularly the interplay between sponsorship/patronage and
postcolonial relationships / racism
Rethink categories such as ‘class advantage’ and ‘racial discrimination’
simultaneously, moving beyond ‘intersectional analysis’
The material effects on doctors careers of varying responses to
perceived racial discrimination
Exploring how care of the elderly can be a diacritic marker of ethnic
difference for migrants and the implications of this for migrant
geriatricians.