fear of foreign doctors

After several bad encounters with foreign doctors Arleen has developed a fear of being treated by any medical professional who is not fully conversant with the English language and western customs, particularly in relation to women.

"All of the old doctors who once served this area have retired or died," explains Arleen, "and all of their places have been taken almost exclusively by immigrant doctors from India, Pakistan, China and Iraq whose cultural background, particularly in relation to women, is so different from ours."

"Why is there such a dearth of home-grown doctors?" asks Arleen. "Don't our young people want to enter the medical profession any more? What are they doing instead? Or could it be that they cannot compete for fee-paying university places with the sons and daughters of rich foreigners?"

"It's not so much a matter of language -- though sometimes it most certainly is, and you wonder about a communication problem having terrible repercussions," says Arleen. "It's a matter of being in an intimate situation with a man whose culture forbids such intimacy with a woman."

"And, these days, with terror organizations recruiting from universities, it's a matter of being in a life and death situation with a man – or woman – whose culture denigrates my own."

"I suppose a home-grown doctor can similarly think we are 'disgusting' when he is faced with a surgery full of people who are either grossly obese, alcoholic, riddled with venereal diseases or whatever," sighs Arleen, "but it's a totally different experience when this 'disgust' is expressed by someone from a different country."

"And, while it shouldn't matter who treats you in an emergency – when you're bleeding to death or something," adds Arlene, "it most certainly does matter if the treating doctor is from a country you are at war with or is a member of a religion which gives brownie points for each infidel wiped off the face of the earth."

Read more by Arleen on this issue:

immigrant plumbers and doctors

Polish plumbers make great neighbours!

foreign doctors and female patients