Malta’s medical brain drain to the United Kingdom last year reached its highest ever rate, according to the British General Medical Council register, with 55 doctors registering in the UK in 2006.
The figure increased over the 39 doctors registered in 2004, who received their primary medical qualification in Malta; and 32 who registered in 2003. Between 2000 and 2006, 211 Maltese graduates went to work in the UK, attracted by better wages and conditions with the national health service and private hospitals.
The British NHS has become one of the most attractive medical centres for medical graduates from EU member states.
Polish doctors on their own have migrated in their hundreds to the UK since EU accession: while only 19 Polish doctors registered in the UK in 2002, the figure shot up to 500 in 2003, and then increased to 744 in 2004.
By far, the highest number of foreign-qualified doctors in the British NHS are from India and Pakistan.
From within the EU, Italy, Greece, Germany and the Czech Republic ‘export’ the greatest number of doctors to the UK after Poland.
The Medical Association of Malta has already stated that as much as 70 per cent of new doctors graduating from the University of Malta have left the island to work in the USA, the UK and Australia.
Many of the men and women being trained to diagnose and treat the nation’s illnesses claim there is nothing paying them well enough to work on the island. Many complain they are finding it hard to cope with a growing demand for their services and 60 to 70-hour weeks while authorities insist that health centre doctors should see one patient every four minutes.
A study on job satisfaction among the NHS’s general practitioners in Malta also revealed poor levels of satisfaction among doctors, citing poor pay and career progression as reasons for their disgruntlement.
The survey by Dr Mario Sammut, published in the Malta Medical Journal, showed 41 per cent of GPs felt “unappreciated, neglected and disrespected”, 39 per cent experiencing job dissatisfaction, stress and depression, while 31 per cent felt verbally and physically used, misused and abused.
Doctors complained patients are disrespectful to the profession, the administration uncaring and indifferent to their opinion, and they also accused colleagues of “selfishness, side-kicking, and making obstacles”.

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NEWS | Wednesday, 15 August 2007

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