Diagnosis Murder
Seven of the suspects arrested under suspicion of involvement with the terrorist attacks over the last few days are NHS junior doctors or medical students. Britain’s threat level has only today been stepped down from ‘critical’ to ’severe’ and heightened security at airports remains in place. As a shifty-looking NHS junior doctor flying out of the UK on Friday, these events have had particular resonance.
Almost three months after junior doctors were in the news protesting a disastrous job shortage, a friend at work quipped “I think some of these guys are taking their MTAS protests a bit far.” Hey, perhaps these guys were just pissed off at being laid off…
“Brilliant”: Mohammed Asha topped his class several times.
Two Iraqi doctors seem to be at the heart of the attempted terror campaign, thought responsible for both the Glasgow Airport attack and two unsuccessful bombs in London two days prior. A British cleric working in Iraq had recently been informed of an impending attack on Britain by an Al Qaeda leader, with the ominous warning that “the people who cure you will kill you.”
The suspects, of Iraqi, Saudi, Indian and Jordanian origin, have opened a debate on the role overseas doctors play in the British health system. It is a widely acknowledged fact that the NHS survives on the contribution of doctors trained abroad. Many would go so far as to say that the NHS would not exist today had doctors from the sub-continent buoyed it through its early decades. Today approximately 128,000 of the 277,000 doctors on the GMC Register are from overseas medical schools.
The requirement of a work permit for foreign junior doctors only came into place last year, as the UK was producing more doctors itself (many of whom are now leaving for Australia, New Zealand and Canada). Medical Student Newspaper covered the fact that even overseas undergraduates in British medical schools, who pay almost £100,000 in tuition fees, were instructed to apply for work permits despite being halfway through training.
The normal vetting process for doctors involves a professional and linguistic assessment (the PLAB) and a probation period working in the NHS before a full registration is offered. Doctors from the EU are exempt from these checks. No doctors are specifically questioned on their political views.
Members of British Muslim medical groups, such as Dr Abdula Shehu of the Muslim Doctors Association, are afraid there will be a backlash against Muslim doctors. To me, this sounds improbable. Doctors can’t be picked out on the street – most people know doctors via being treated by them. I doubt people will suddenly assume their family GP Dr Hussain is a terrorist.
However not much has been said about medical students, who interact with a far more diverse group of people than doctors. We have previously touched upon the religious fanaticism that lurks on British university campuses and I’m sure there will be sympathisers amongst British Muslim students, just as there is likely to be some ill will toward normal Islamic students.
What appears to be happening is a questioning of Britain’s reliance on overseas doctors. Gordon Brown has already pledged a review of NHS recruitment and ’skilled migrant workers’ background checks. Intelligence agencies said they will have to “widen the net” when searching for potential bombers. A somewhat romantic illusion that doctors are above activities like terrorism has been laid to rest, but the debate over the ability to cure and kill is a fascinating one.
The Times today revealed details of the two Indian suspects, now known to be cousins. Both spent most of their time in the UK socialising only with other foreign doctors, often just Indians. Details of the other suspects’ lives is patchy, but again most character testimonies have come from Muslim friends and acquaintances. In my hospital accomodation, a cluster of several apartment blocks, several are populated solely by immigrants. It is quite possible to have a job in the NHS and live with, work with and socialise with only those from outside the UK.
The disparate group of eight people seem linked only by two things, being Muslim and medicine.
The NHS is prohibited from actively recruiting from countries at risk of a ‘brain-drain’ (though less than a quarter of recruitment agencies the NHS uses has signed up to this), but a doctor from such a country is entitled to apply independently. A huge proportion of the NHS is accounted for by foreign workers, with thousands of doctors from 150 countries, nurses from the Phillipines, India, Ghana and Nigeria or cleaners from Nepal, Ghana and Nigeria. These countries’ health systems are woefully understaffed.
In the wake of 7/7, we clutched at straws for what might have driven those men to kill. Poverty, social deprivation, a lack of feeling British. This time, whilst I can assure you juniors doctors are not flushed with money, they are certainly not on the poverty line. These doctors had no call to feel British as they weren’t, but it seems apparent they resented the country they had chosen to work in.
Their reason for attacking the UK might have been the same as previous terrorists, but how did they become subject to such extreme views in spite of their high educational level and respected job? Much could be speculated about doctors from Iraq – they sought revenge for a fallen friend, an insult to their country – but then why were Indian Muslims angry?
I realise I am posing more questions than I am answering. I do not feel increasing security checks on skilled migrants will solve the problem. We do not know if some of these men (and woman) were radicalised in the UK. For me, and many like me, the very nature of the NHS is under scrutiny. A thoroughly British convention, it is a puzzling behemoth of nations. Isolation for someone new to the UK is very easy in the NHS – how many other mass employers routinely provide cheap digs next to your workplace combined with 60 hour weeks?
The NHS remains perpetually over-stretched and under pressure to cut waiting times; see more patients; improve treatments. None of this is possible without sufficent staffing, frequently drawn from the countries that need medical professionals the most. Whilst not apparently linked to recent events, the fact the NHS is driving thousands of its best and brightest abroad every year can only be worrying.
I’ll end with an anecdote. After the Tsunami, I spent a month working at relief camps around Sri Lanka’s coast. I returned to Heathrow with a shaved head, a month’s tan, a big rucksack and four days of stubble. The security officers saw me a mile off and took me to a special area where they searched me and my bags. They rummaged through sweaty clothes and pirate DVDs, firing a series of questions at me. As soon as the chap looking through my bag found my stethoscope, both officers immediately packed everything back in and apologised for bothering me. I was sure the “I’m a doctor” line would be an evergreen get-out clause for airport security. Oh well, wish me luck this weekend.
(Kind of related, I thoroughly recommend Michael Moore’s new film, Sicko.)
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Michael Moore’s false romanticization of the NHS had me rather confused. Exactly how many days did he spend here in the UK?
…and that ‘travel to Guantanamo’ section at the end was an idiotic stunt gone wrong, no where near as effective as past practical narrative devices he employed in Bowling for Columbine or Farenheit 9/11….where he stood outside Washington trying to get congressman to sign-up their kids for war.
It was a great documentary as usual, but he really should have laid into the pharmaceuticals MUCH harder than he did, they got off rather lightly I thought.
regarding ‘DOCTOR DEATH’ as the Media have cleverly defined him, isn’t he innocent until proven guilty? and wouldn’t Harold Shipman be angry his patented title is no longer his?
So, the ‘terrorists’ have infiltrated the transport system, now they are within the NHS….any guesses where they will pop-up next? under bedsheets perhaps…
About Sicko – yeah, it’s more opinion than fact sometimes, he does romanticise countries like the UK, France and Cuba and Big Pharma could have suffered more.
One day I’ll be able to claim Dr Death for myself Nyrone.
Rohin,
“One day I’ll be able to claim Dr Death for myself Nyrone.”
I was totally with your original article. I just don’t understand what you mean by that?
No doctors are specifically questioned on their political views.
And so they shouldn’t be.
but how did they become subject to such extreme views in spite of their high educational level and respected job?
Intelligence and a desire to kill are mutually exclusive events. The above mentioned Harold Shipman is a prime example.
I am sure they have their reasons and I’m really intrigued to hear them.
Haha and a brilliant title there!
(I know this isn’t the place to laugh but that was very clever.)
There has been a lot of comment in the news about the fact that these suspects were ‘highly educated’, (so how could they even dream of getting involved in terrorism? e.t.c.)
This has been said before on this site but I think it’s worth emphasising. I doubt these guys were educated in a true sense. Given a technical, medical problem I’m sure they would be great at solving it, but were they well read? Were they ever taught to have a nuanced view of history and geopolitics? Were they encouraged to appreciate music, art, and debate? Somehow I suspect not. That’s real education. Memorising the contents of medical manuals – vital though it is of course – isn’t. Some of the most stubborn Islamists I knew at Cambridge were brilliant medics but hopeless when it came to behaving like well balanced, rounded individuals.
And yeah, as you people have pointed out, what’s with these people who think medical doctors must automatically be paragons of virtue? Ayman al-Zawahiri anyone? Baruch Goldstein? Hundreds of SS doctors carrying out ‘experiments’ in WWII?
In fact as if to prove the point go to Dr Crippen’s NHS Blog and read up on Alan Johnstone’s release from Gaza but note the complete absence of any thread on NHS Doctors involved in car bombs, or anything on the subject of them now having the validity of their medical qualifications scrutinised.
It is strange how NHS Blog can be acerbic on so much but silent on a key issue that is of concern to those who pay for and use the NHS
Listen if you are sick, if your child is sick, you wouldnt care if your doctor was Osama Bin Laden himself. You just want to get better. You are way too vulnerable when you are sick. Vulnerable and scared.
bikhair – Excellent point. You wouldn’t even notice if your doctor was Osama Bin Laden.
thanks for this post rohin and clearing up no doubt the many questions in people’s minds.
i agree that suddenly going oh no! we need british doctors not overseas ones isn’t going to help, why would it. there are so many british muslim medical students who might well be ‘inculcated’ on campus.
still, no doubt there will be a witch-hunt and loads of us overseas types will be ’suspects’.
the interesting thing about terrorism is the mission is of course to cause terror. perhaps the idea is slowly, scare everyone in britain so it will have to close itself off – forget about international students, forget about international medical students ( and what would happen to all those subsidies then urgh? ) I don’t know but that’s what it seems like. oh and to try and stop everyone from going on summer holiday ( perhaps its some nationalist eco-fascist types?)
good luck for your trip rohin.
i meant questions in people’s minds about medical training and who’s who.
ironically i think it is precisely because doctors are considered ‘good’ – i think probably thats why medical students are targeted on campuses more. ok and anyway so many asian kids are all studying professional things so its easy to find lots of medics, but my point is out of those studying engineering and computer science, Islamists prob. think they can turn the ‘do-goodiness’ often found in medical students to their advantage. after all its like saying, ah there is injustice in this part of the world ( frame that differently) and we need YOU and your skills to save the world.
same might apply to doctors elsewhere – the islamist approach to recruiting ‘islamic doctors’ to counter the “evils of the corrupt West” the medicin sans frontiere equivalent of islamism!
the scary thing is that if “evil” as it is described, exists, its probably just the desire to do good turned inside out – well i think the people involved have a ‘warped’ ( in my view) idea that they are doing some sort of good. Which is why of course do-gooders are always a bit dangerous. if someone is passionate about something and you get them signed to the ‘wrong’ cause – well then they’d probably be far more efficient and into it than us lazy potheads.
i think the government should legalize weed and encourage it.
Aint it taken from that tv show with Dick Van Dyke?
question rohin – in the old days when i was at uni, there didn’t seem to be a shortage of posts for junior doctors – a lot of my medschool friends who were international students as well – had no probs getting jobs. they also seemed to think back then that they had an advantage over those who had qualified elsewhere- because they’d trained here.
so has that changed? if there’s a job shortage now – who’s getting in for the posts? i would imagine that if there are fewer jobs, then there will be fewer PLAB types getting those jobs. i was just having a look around on the net and people are of course asking why there are PLAB-y types around given that there are no jobs for our own!
the other thing i was wondering is even if there is a shortage for junior doctors – that doesn’t necessarily mean there is a shortage for doctors full stop – are there lots of consultant spots that are filled by the PlAB-y types?
squared,
See when you said:
“Intelligence and a desire to kill are mutually exclusive events.”
Did you actually mean:
“Intelligence and a desire to kill not mutually exclusive events.”
Just asking.
Sonia,
Re post 14. I doubt anything has actually changed. There still seems to be a shortfall of doctors in the UK. That is the reality.
thanks douglas, its what i would have expected, given the state of the NHS…
you know this whole terrorist thing is so annoying for us ordinary people trying to live our lives. Next thing you know they might say, sorry no NHS because it was full of terrorist anyway, we’re going to do healthcare the American way.
i mean who the hell actually supports terrorism? given this the sort of thing that will probably happen? and why do they go around having babies. Shocking, the state of the world is shocking.
well anyway it would seem terrorists or would-be terrorists are still identifiable by their funny straggly awful looking beards. now is this a self-fulfilling prophecy? i.e. terrorist recruiters think only bearded types are suitable terrorists, echoing the masses, or are they trying to purposefully trying to get the masses to be pissed off with the bearded types, knowing full well most of them are harmless?
perhaps that’s the trick, make it so that no bearded person will want to live life in the UK, and then they will have no choice but to join some revival of the Caliphate idea – a land for the bearded. perhaps that is the grand plan.
the only thing it seems to me is that clearly none of these Al-qaeda types have read their own manual, where it says blend in with your environment, and shave off that beard and don’t wear islamic dress. Still, maybe that’s all changed now, who knows. Perhaps they have an updated copy somewhere that we can’t access.
i agree with your point golam. in days past society would place doctors teachers, politicians etc on a pedestal, some of these ‘guilded’ professionals would maintain this air of arrogance. Now most people think fuck that bullshit, just because some geek studied a few manuals over a 5 year period, does that give them an all rounded moral character? no!
Sonia,
I am a huge admirer of our host here, who, at least, keeps his beard trimmed!
So, joking apart, a beard is not a prerequisite for terrorism.
However, your idea that it is a plot, to grow a beard, is something the Gillette Corporation would subscribe to.
Let us insist on unbearded Islamisicts. Perhaps we could insist on an unbeared Islaam? Would that define what it means to be British?
Now there’s a thought
Oh no, my wife is choking on a bean. Help! help! Is there a terrorist in the house?
Can I make doctor, doctor jokes now?
yes interesting points from Golam.
its pretty obvious with the whole asian doctor thing that a very large no. of people go for it for the whole prestige and honour thing, and cos their parents made ‘em do it.
heh kismet yes lets have some doctor jokes..
It was just a crap joke douglas.
Squared I’m not necessarily suggesting that doctors should be quizzed on their political allegiances – but as far as I can tell (I might be wrong and I’m not sure where to look) they face less checks than other ‘highly skilled’ migrants.
Golam you sound like a medic – you’re dead right that being a doctor doesn’t make you automatically intelligent in a worldly sense. It does, by definition, make you highly educated as it’s a long undergraduate degree with necessary postgrad qualifications. Many doctors live an insular life. But if someone is learned in the arts, history etc, as you mention, does that preclude them from becoming a nutter?
Sorry – for some reason only the first 9 posts appeared when I replied!
Sonia. Thanks for the good luck. The days you were talking about are sadly over. I went into medicine with the promise I’ll “always have a job”. Patricia Hewitt saw fit to butcher training here (admittedly, the Modernising Medical Careers scheme wasn’t her idea) and about 22,000 jobs existed for 30,000 junior doctors this year. Many of my friends are brilliant doctors with no job as of next month.
There are less posts. But! The PLABs are being held more often! Go figure. India (by far the top overseas doc-supplier) is running more sessions than ever before. Doctors are being promised jobs and arriving to find nothing. I’m saddened none of this made more of a dent in the news, other than Channel 4 which covered it superbly.
Douglas, you are right – there is still a shortage of doctors, but consultants and GPs. One of the reasons they tried to mend what wasn’t broken – they’re trying to fast-track me to being a consultant or GP, without letting me get the necessary training. I might end up operating on your Mum with about 6000 theatre hours instead of 30,000.
Docterrorist jokes are called for Kismet. I’ve already been on a roll at work. My best involved “explosive diarrhoea”.
Doctor, Doctor! My jeep is on fire
Are you choking?
No, it really is
Doctor, Doctor! I’ve got a tick
Where are you calling from?
The UK
Don’t worry, it won’t go off
Doctor, Doctor! I want to kill my father.
Who is your father?
Peter Andre
Well, you did live in Jordan
Doctor, Doctor! I want to kill myself
Oh don’t be such a martyr
Doctor Doctor! Wheeeee. I think I’m an aeroplane
Oh blow up
Rohin it is worrying what you say. Its crazy that people would axe junior doctor jobs, when there is clearly a struggling health system.
so at the expense of sounding simplistic – what’s your take on why the heck they went and got rid of those jobs? i mean money is always used as an excuse, but really.
I guess what i was also wondering if they are trying to get PLAB types – who have experience overseas – to jump into consultant positions here ( if the junior doctors here aren’t getting any training, they might have to go off somewhere else too to get training, then come back to be a consultant?) either which way it sounds all pretty shit to me. what the heck are these politicians about? all talk and no action.
kismet
p.s. rohin where are you going? somewhere sunny i hope!
Rohin they are already talking of decoupling the post ST 2 training, which essentially means back to the old system!
Sorry, just saw the caption to the picture above
“Mohammed Asha topped his class several times”
And no one noticed?!
knocknock!
who’s there?
doctor.
doctor who?
doctor who’ssane.
The disparate group of eight people seem linked only by two things, being Muslim and medicine.
and horrible taste in curtain fabric.
London Olympics Organising Committee has man linked to fundamentalism
on their Board with the Princess Royal
Adhikar, an organisation of British Asians advocating civil liberties,
has asked for the urgent removal of Dr Mohammed Abdul Bari from the
board of the London 2012 Organising Committee (LOCOG) as he has been
reported to have praised and welcomed the work of Muslims who hold
extremist and fundamentalist views.
Dr Muhammad Abdul Bari, Secretary General of the Muslim Council of
Britain, who is a member of LOCOG along with Lord Sebastian Coe, the
Princess Royal and others has, according to a report in the Daily
Telegraph, welcomed to the opening of the London Muslim Centre, Sheikh
Abdul Rehman al Sudais. According to the report, Sheikh al Sudais the
Saudi-government-appointed imam of the Grand Mosque in Mecca,
described Jews as ’scum of the earth,’ ‘rats of the world’ and
‘monkeys and pigs who should be annihilated.’ The Telegraph further
states, “Yet, criticize al Sudais, and Mohammed Abdul Bari leaps
furiously to his defence.”
Mohammed Abdul Bari, already has a record of hosting at his mosque the
Bangladeshi fanatic Delwar Hossain Sayeedi, who has called for
American soldiers to be “buried in the soil of Iraq.”
Adhikar condemns the continuing presence of Dr Bari in the London 2012
Organising Committee, which is charged with delivering its vision to
“to stage inspirational Games that capture the imagination of young
people around the world and leave a lasting legacy.” Adhikar fails to
understand how a man who supports extremist and fundamentalist views
can sit on a Committee that has a duty to inspire young people.
London 2012 Organising Committee members are expected to deliver a
‘Cultural Olympiad’ – a festival celebrating the diversity and
richness of culture in London, the UK and around the world.
Adhikar would like to know how a person who supports extremist and
fundamentalist views like Dr Bari, and who comes from an organisation
that has been shown to have deep links with extremist groups can
contribute to the celebration of diversity and richness of culture in
London, UK and around the world.
The MCB is an organization whose ideological roots are found in the
ambitions and ideals of Mualana Maududi, who sought a global
revolution to achieve an Islamic state governed by sharia law. Iqbal
Sacranie, the former secretary general of the MCB, who was knighted
despite holding radical Muslim views, first distinguished himself by
arguing when Iran issued a fatwa against the novelist Salmon Rushdie
that for him “death was perhaps too easy.” As head of the Muslim
Council of Britain, he argued for criminalizing the phrase “Islamic
terrorist” and lead a boycott of Britain’s Holocaust memorial day.
The MCB’s Deputy Secretary General Inayat Bunglawala has also praised
Maududi.
The Muslim Council of Britain played a key role in welcoming Sheikh
Yusuf al Qaradawi, to a meeting organized by Ken Livingstone, the
mayor of London. Qaradawi has supported suicide bombing against
Israelis, the treatment of all Jews as legitimate targets, the
whipping of homosexuals and the killing of all Americans — civilian
and military — in Iraq, and the unleashing of jihad (holy war)
against Hindus as wholly legitimate. Even though such ideology is
clearly has extremist undertones, the MCB leapt to defend Sheikh
Qaradwi. When a group was formed to expose the link between Qaradawi
and the Mayor, representatives of the MCB are reported to have lobbied
with non-Jewish members of the group to stop their opposition of Ken
Livingstone and Sheikh Qaradawi.
Iqbal Sacranie was knighted despite being listed as a trustee of a
global alliance of Islamic charities called the Union of Good, chaired
by Sheikh Yusuf al-Qaradawi, who has said of the Israel-Palestine
conflict: “We must plant the love of death in the Islamic nation.”
Like al-Qaradawi, several of Sacranie’s fellow trustees are members or
supporters of Hamas and have extolled the theological virtues of
suicide bombing directed at civilians in the Israel-Palestine
conflict. According to Muslim Weekly, the new deputy MCB secretary-
general, Daud Abdullah, referred to Hamas as “we” at a recent
Trafalgar Square rally.
Melanie Phillips, columnist and journalist said in an interview: “The
MCB is an extremist body, much influenced by the work of the Islamist
idealogue Syed al Maududi. It pretends to moderation, and is regarded
as a legitimate community interlocutor by the British government, but
it is a wolf in sheep’s clothing. In fact, that sheepish covering is
currently looking even more threadbare since its new head, Mohammed
Abdul Bari, said cheerfully in a recent interview that the MCB’s aim
was the Islamisation of Britain and that everyone should have arranged
marriages. The MCB is in turn an umbrella movement for a large number
of Muslim organisations, any of which are even more extreme.
Ruth Kelly, the Communities Secretary, attacked the Muslim Council of
Britain (MCB) for boycotting Holocaust Memorial Day, criticising
police anti-terrorist operations and “sitting on the sidelines” in the
campaign against extremists.
Adhikar fails to understand how the secretary-general of such an
organization could be appointed to the London 2012 Organising
Committee that is meant to inspire and engage with the youth of the
country to promote a culture of diversity. A man who is inspired by
the extremist and fundamentalist views of al-Sudaid, Maududi, al-
Qaradawi and Delwar Hussain is hardly fit to sit on such a body with
Lord Coe and the Princess Royal. Do we want the youth of our country
to be inspired by their views?
Just a small little thing here . . . these guys were doctors, doctors that tried a lot of people with some exploding cars.
Now it kinda strikes me as weird that no one has mentioned that if a doctor wanted to kill a lot of people – a hellova lot of people – and scare 60 million people to death, all he would need to do is, say, use the tools at his disposal?
They worked in hospitals: they would have had access to the path lab, to the morgue, to the incinerator, diseased limbs, viral swabs, bacterial cultures. These can cause far more damage than two car bombs. In fact, all he needs to do is not wash his hands on a known MRSA ward, and he’s going to transmit something that could make people very ill indeed.
If you are going to kill old folks in an airport, you will kill them in a hospital bed as well. I think someone should implement an enquiry into whether some ‘action’ also occurred in these men’s workplaces as well.
Just read through this now… good post Rohin!
That’s the elephant in the room which we’re all aware of but is really horrific to mention out loud.
…..Considering all the drugs, toxins, and life-threatening bacteria/viruses such an individual would have access to.
Excellent article by the way, Rohin; as someone who’s grown up surrounded by doctors (mostly Asian), I can confirm that you made many spot-on points. Very accurate.
Apart from the following:
There might be a backlash against Asian doctors in general, considering the large numbers of the public who can’t differentiate between us in terms of religion. This is of course exacerbated by the recent trend in the media to automatically conflate “Asian” with “Muslim”, and use the term interchangeably.
Also, this point is something I’m afraid I don’t agree with either:
Don’t be too sure about that. It gets even scarier when you consider exactly how many Asian doctors there are in the UK — the number’s absolutely huge. The repercussions could be very worrying indeed if Average Joe becomes paranoid about all this.
Speaking as someone whose father’s a doctor, working in a hospital packed full of Muslim doctors (mostly Asian, but increasingly from the Middle East these days), and whose parental social circles consist of large numbers of Asian doctors too.
You can’t blame me for worrying about the fallout from current events.
… and Patricia Hewitt of course.
Rohin,
It strikes me that a statistic for the exact number of doctors of foreign origin, and the proportion of these that are Indian/Pakisatni/Muslim origin, would be a useful figure to have here. Likewise, a little analysis on what the absence of these foreigners would mean for the NHS. Its important for both the MMC debate, and this current scrutiny after the failed terror attacks.
Where could I find such figures?