The story of the generation of doctors who came to Britain from the Indian subcontinent in the 1960s and have provided the backbone of the NHS ever since.
DIRECTOR INTERVIEW Julia Foot
"They were pushed into the deprived areas"
The BBC is not responsible for the content of external websites
Tom Ware
Time Shift Series Editor
Asian doctors are the forgotten heroes of the NHS and the missing link in the emergence of an identifiable Asian middle class in Britain. Julia Foot's enlightening Time Shift discovers how the Indian subcontinent's brightest medical students were lured to this country, by health ministers including Enoch Powell, with the promise of good wages and the chance to develop their expertise. That many ended up running the poorest GP practices (like in the Rhondda Valley) or in the so-called "Cinderella" disciplines like geriatrics is testament to the wall of prejudice they met on arrival and have stoically put up with for the last 30 years.
Now the generation that had to endure Powell's "Rivers of Blood" speech and the racial violence in its wake are approaching retirement. And, ironically, Britain is once again looking to Asia in the desperate search for their replacements.
