Surprising I know, but judging from The Foreign Doctors Are Coming (Channel 4, Tuesday), Britain mightn’t be such a bad place after all. The programme followed a group of medics from non-EU countries whose dream is to work for the NHS, but who first had to pass a practical exam in Manchester known, for reasons left unexplained, as PLAB 2. ‘When I landed in Britain it felt like a breath of freedom,’ said a young Pakistani woman. ‘People here are helpful,’ declared Ahmed from Egypt as he walked the Manchester streets. ‘I see you have no problem with other cultures.’
Meanwhile, it also seems as if our doctors are less off-puttingly patrician than elsewhere — because the purpose of PLAB 2 is to check whether these people have the sort of kindly bedside manner that Brits evidently expect. ‘Back home, we are God,’ an Indian doctor told us in a slightly wistful tone, ‘and the patients just listen to what we say.
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