BBC Four: How did the doctors you interviewed for the programme feel about how they were received in Britain?
Julia Foot: When they first arrived there weren't that many black and Asian faces around. Some of them were the first Asians in the area and were treated as subjects of curiosity and invited for dinner. But within the hospitals I think there was some scepticism about them even though they'd been trained in the British medical system. Although they had the qualifications on paper they never walked into the jobs they were qualified for. They thought they'd go into new training hospitals and use the specialist training they had. In fact they were pushed into the deprived and inner-city areas where the British doctors just didn't want to go.

BBC Four: Do you think this scepticism was because of language problems or prejudice?
JF: I think it was prejudice and looking after their own. The National Health Service needed a big work force because it was expanding at a tremendous rate. New hospitals were being built, new specialties were being established and bodies were needed to fill these posts. Bringing over doctors from South East Asia meant they could fill posts in general practice, psycho-geriatrics and mental health while British doctors got all the plum jobs.

BBC Four: A doctor in the programme who says there was a pecking order based on nationality...
JF: It was totally accepted. The English doctors got the best jobs and then it was the British doctors - the Scottish were the most vocal, so they were next and then the Welsh and the Irish. At the time it was the general medical perception of the training that determined the subsequent pecking order of Pakistani, Indian, West Indian and African doctors. The doctors I spoke to said, "It happened, it was accepted, we knew we would get the shit jobs so we didn't fight the system. And by not making a fuss we could sometimes leapfrog because a post would be filled and then we could jump up a notch."

BBC Four: Their reaction to prejudice was intriguing. There was the instance of the doctor who wasn't allowed the key to his own practice.
JF: When he was the head of the practice.

BBC Four: And instead of lodging a complaint and making a fuss he engaged in a very restrained but powerful protest.
JF: What amazed me about that story was that I first interviewed Dr Kureshi at the British Medical Association conference at Torquay and asked him if he had experienced any prejudice. In the way of all the doctors he said, "Oh no, everything was fine, everybody was nice". And it was only subsequently, when I met him again in Bristol I said, "All the historians say that there was prejudice and I can't believe you didn't experience any" and he said, "Well, there was this time..." and he told me this horrendous story.

There was pure racism and discrimination but the doctors accepted this would happen and took what opportunities they could. Over the years, some of the specialties they went into, which were very unpopular at the time, like Accident & Emergency and the psychiatric lines, have become very important. That's why there are now so many Asian doctors in top positions who have formed this rising Asian middle class. It's very clear that while they accepted this prejudice and discrimination, their children who are also going into medicine, aren't accepting it and are actually getting the top jobs straight away.

BBC Four: It's amazing the number of South Asian doctors that there are in some areas - you mention the figure of 73% of GPs in the Rhondda Valley.
JF: And 71% in the next valley along, the Cullen Valley. One of the doctors said, if you saw an Asian walking along the street in the Rhondda Valley he'd either be the GP or the man from the corner shop. I picked up the story because I have a friend who's a health visitor in the area and when I told her I was doing this programme about the number of Asian doctors in the UK she said, "Have you looked at the Rhondda? I think there are quite a few there". I did a printout of the GPs and there were Indian names, one after the other. They became very established in the areas but their children don't want to go back and fill the places.

BBC Four: This is something you mention in the programme, few doctors now want to fill the places which were taken by the first wave of Indian doctors. Are steps now being taken to address this?
JF: It's such a serious problem in South Wales that they're actively trying to recruit GPs to the area and to make the job more attractive. They're organising cover so GPs don't have to work on their own for so long...they know that when all these GPs come up to retirement there's going to be this massive hole.

BBC Four: And do you think the NHS will do what it did in the 1960s and recruit from abroad?
JF: That's what they say they're doing but I don't think it will be done on quite the same scale as before. A number of doctors are coming over from other parts of Europe but they have more of a language problem. The advantage of the South East Asian doctors was that they were trained under the British medical system and had excellent English.