Stanley, I agree with Iain that it’s more the nature of socialized health care systems, which drive many homegrown doctors and nurses into either the private sector or abroad. The last Canadian-trained doctor and nurse to examine my fleshly delights were working at a hospital in New Hampshire. At the Royal Victoria in Montreal, they’re a rare sight. And in Britain the nationalization of the health system has meant it has an ever dwindling appeal as a middle-class profession. From The Guardian:

White males now account for little more than a quarter of [medical] students, and are substantially under-represented, the researchers say.

Here’s another statistic:

Over two-thirds of doctors registering to practise in the UK in 2003 were from overseas – the vast majority from non-European countries.

The United Kingdom has a higher proportion of doctors trained abroad than any other advanced nation. As Roger Fox wrote in the March issue of Economic Affairs:

The combination of monopoly control by the medical profession on the supply side and the nationalised National Health Service on the demand side has resulted in a lower number of doctors per head than in other Western European countries.

I wonder if Michael Moore addresses these points in his movie. His strangely touchy fans didn’t care for the last mention I made of him in The Corner, and sent me cheery greetings such as the following:

I hope your death is soon and painful.

Sounds like they’ve booked me into a Scottish hospital. That said, the Indian doctor has been a beloved figure in British popular culture at least since Sophia Loren and Peter Sellers sang “Goodness Gracious Me“, by my old friend Herbie Kretzmer.