PERSPECTIVES

I thought this was a really interesting insight on a current BBC story from a Biased BBC reader;

“There is a report today on the BBC website about the government wanting all foreign doctors working in the NHS to be able to speak English. At present, EU-registered doctors are exempt from such a requirement, due to the Alice In Wonderland laws that currently prevail. The move has been precipitated due to the case of Dr Daniel Ubani – described as a “German” locum doctor – who managed to kill a patient on his first and only shift in the UK.

At the end of the article, the BBC makes the following plea: “Are you a foreign doctor working in England? What do you make of the government’s plans? Send us your thoughts and comments using the form below.”

Now, is it me just being unduly sensitive, but why are they are asking for such comments? If they are seeking opinions, surely the only ones that really matter are those of patients?

Surely the question should be “Are you a patient whose health treatment has been unduly affected by the use of doctors who cannot adequately speak English?”

Obviously such a question should only be open to NHS patients, and not the 500+ BBC executives who receive private health care as part of their contracts and are presumably unaffected. It may seem a small point, but it is indicative of the general mindset of the BBC, where victims and the guilty are carefully rearranged.”

Oh, and one final point. Ubani is “German” but was born in Nigeria only gaining German  citizenship. Perhaps the BBC should provide this little detail when it is at it.

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38 Responses to PERSPECTIVES

  1. George R says:

    “Dialect test to root out bogus asylum seekers pretending to be Palestinians.
    “Immigrants claiming to be from Palestine will have linguistic tests.
    “100 per cent of applicants claiming to be Palestinian were lying.”
    “Arabic is the main language in the Middle East and North Africa.”

    http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2283520/Dialect-test-root-bogus-asylum-seekers-pretending-Palestinians.html

       21 likes

    • David Preiser (USA) says:

      That’s funny on a couple of levels. Why aren’t real Palestinians trying to escape to Britain from the world’s largest open prison?

         22 likes

    • thoughtful says:

      Unfortunately owing to Israels uncompromising attitude the UK cannot return failed asylum seekers to Israel / Palestine because the Israelis will not allow them to re-enter Palestinian territory. Perhaps we would be better served pressuing Israel to accept them back again?

      Asylum seekers threatened with return to a country which they did not originate from have a surprising outbreak of honesty once they are put on a plane, thanks to Israels policy we never get this far.

      I know of one genuinely Palestinian asylum seeker who cannot be returned who came out with one of the most illustrating comments ” This is not Britain, it’s Pakistan! “

         11 likes

      • David Preiser (USA) says:

        If there aren’t any actually seeking asylum, there’s not much point worrying about that at the moment.

           7 likes

        • thoughtful says:

          There are those who claim to be from Palestine whether true or not. Therefore there must be a point in worrying about it.
          The burden of proof for refugees is a low one and when a country like Israel makes return impossible, then it becomes very attractive to call ones self a ‘palestinian’

             5 likes

          • David Preiser (USA) says:

            Okay, from that perspective, it would be even funnier to try to enforce it.

               1 likes

  2. Hachi says:

    Maybe they don’t hear from as many foreign doctors in the UK? Whereas there’s no shortage of patient stories? The clip is from Breakfast, they ask for viewers comments.

       4 likes

  3. bigben says:

    Its the Muslims fault.
    they have ruined the NHS by being sick.

       1 likes

    • David Preiser (USA) says:

      Unable to debate, just a series of drive-by sneers. Typical.

         29 likes

      • bigben says:

        But us BBC people can’t debate just call people who disagree with us Racists.

           1 likes

        • David Preiser (USA) says:

          True enough, as you demonstrate.

             27 likes

          • bigben says:

            I am so jealous of you, you are so successful and I am BBC employee with a non-job.

               1 likes

            • David Preiser (USA) says:

              You must be so proud of yourself. Please show this to your friends.

                 27 likes

            • Dr Phibes (NHS) says:

              PLEASE – This Troll should be given nil by mouth or طريق الفم لا شيء as we say in the NHS

                 2 likes

            • wallygreeninker says:

              Perhaps this one should be encouraged. His / her / its comments are so witless as to be counterproductive.

                 17 likes

            • london calling says:

              Why don’t I believe you?

              To enter the hallowed doors of the bBC you need wealthy parents affording you a public school education, an Oxbridge PPE or LSE, preferably a regional accent. You don’t read like you score anywhere. Can you impersonate the chimes of Big Ben? Great, leave your CV with Personel.

                 24 likes

              • Aerfen says:

                To enter the hallowed doors of the bBC you need wealthy parents affording you a public school education, an Oxbridge PPE or LSE, preferably a regional accent

                Not if you’re ethnic minority. Any old accent will do too. Have you not noticed how some of the foreign correspondents have barely passable English these days, almost all the producers have Asian names, news readers, presenters, junior reporters all being ‘ethnically replaced’ by non indigenous, more and more dramas chosen for their use of foreign actors, so ethnic British actors no longer ever get the opportunity to use their skills at foreign accents. In fact we could say actors don’t have to be able to act anymore, since they just ‘act’ themselves.

                   3 likes

    • Paul Weston says:

      Bigben sneers that it is the Muslims fault for being sick. Good old Bigben is actually quite right about this, albeit in an anwitting and typical lefty manner. The Muslim (Pakistani/Bangladeshi) practice of marrying first cousins causes huge problems for the NHS who spend a disproportionate amount of time and money on tending the poor damaged offspring of ignorant third world parents mired in the mentality of medieval one-well villages in Kashmir.

      Well done Bigben!

         15 likes

  4. TigerOC says:

    I’m either completely stupid (I know I’m senile but that’s beside the point 🙂 ) or don’t get this appeal.

    The UK wants any doctor working in the NHS to speak English. Now I am presuming that the BBC wants to hear from Doctors who might suffer some kind of discrimination (minority rights again) to contact them using the form so that they can bleat about it.

    If you cannot speak English then you are unlikely to be able to read and understand English so how the hell do you know they want an opinion and how do you fill in the form.

    Silly me I forgot, they will crack out the translation service so that some other idiot can do it for them.

    Nice one. So we the local majority must see the doctor in a confidential environment and have an interpreter that is not a doctor and hope that he conveys my information to the doctor correctly.

    Yes got that and also picked up the tab for the translator. Only the BBC and our new colourful multicult society.

       19 likes

    • David Preiser (USA) says:

      In the US, if the patient doesn’t speak English, they already know they need to bring a younger relative in to translate. In Soviet Britain the BBC wishes for, government translates you.

      Cynicism aside, when I had a health issue last summer, every single doctor who treated me was not only Hispanic, but spoke fluent English. Two were born and raised in the US, which helps. For some reason, the nurses were everything but Hispanic., many even hideously white. All were brilliant, providing top quality care. I’m fortunate enough to live down the street from one of the top hospital systems in the country, if not on the planet, although my neighborhood is largely Hispanic and working class or on benefits. All of whom the hospital system gives the same brilliant treatment at taxpayer expense (or assistance on the kind of means-tested basis the BBC considers evil) if they can’t pay for it. The worst thing about the whole experience was the patient care-tracking software, which was brand new, and not only ridiculously expensive, but was stupidly cumbersome and seemed to be fighting the last war and not the current one, so to speak.

      Just like in the local McDonald’s and bank branches, being bi-lingual is, shall we say, encouraged, simply because that’s the first language of half the local population. It’s a local effort to ensure better customer service, which is what businesses are supposed to do. No problem. But no way will they hire someone for whom I’d have to get a translator. In Chinatown, they all speak a form of Chinese, but the same other rules apply.

      Several friends and relations can testify to this as well, and the same for the dental program. If the staff is not US-born, they’re fluent in English. For all of this, you can be damn sure speaking English properly is a requirement to work at any of these places, at any job level which deals with the public.

      If you don’t speak English properly, you don’t get into medical or nursing or admin school. Period. If you have qualifications from another country (as many do), you have to speak English properly in order to jump through the various qualification hoops to practice here. The end. Nobody imagines this is discriminatory.

      However, at the BBC and on the Left, it’s a sin to associate the health care industry with the real world of business and its requirements. Result, BBC coverage of the issue.

         20 likes

  5. OldBloke says:

    I’ve heard that none of the forms have been returned to date as the target audience couldn’t understand what the forms said because they couldn’t read English.

       13 likes

  6. Rich Tee says:

    It’s easy.

    If you force a doctor to speak english then you are an evil racist oppressing a minority so the BBC has to come in on the side of the oppressed. That’s why they want to hear from the doctors.

       15 likes

  7. Doublethinker says:

    Perhaps the BBC should be asking for more NHS patients to tell of their treatment and abuse at the hands of the NHS. Surely the death of hundreds of people in one NHS area is the main topic of the year. How many people are needlessly dying across the whole of the country due to the neglect and incompetence of NHS staff.
    No the BBC is trying hard to cover up for their public service chums.

       9 likes

  8. johnnythefish says:

    Funny how the BBC is running with this one but has stuffed the North Staffs horror down the old memory hole.

       7 likes

  9. George R says:

    Romania.

    BBC-NUJ decides to act as PR for Romania, so as to smooth the way for Romanian mass immigration into Britain.

    And BBC-NUJ will use British people’s licence money to do the same for entry of Bulgaria, and no doubt, for Turkey.

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-21550768

       6 likes

  10. Hachi says:

    ‘it is indicative of the general mindset of the BBC, where victims and the guilty are carefully rearranged’

    They’re looking for the perspective of foreign doctors in the UK. That I think is the conlcusion most readers would come to. It’s simply about covering the story.

    The patient’s story isnt hard to come by, and we can probably guess how it goes, something along the lines of not being able to understand their foreign doctor. And as I said, the clip in the article is from Breakfast, and there’d be no shortage of viewers giving the patient’s story.

    Of course you can read anything into it if you wish. Ockham’s razor.

       1 likes

    • thoughtful says:

      No it’s not along the lines of not being able to understand the foreign doctor, as this happened to a friend of mine. When language gets so bad that the doctor makes a wrong diagnosis as a result of impossible communication and the patient has to return as an emergency then it’s far more serious than simple language issues.
      Of course as expected her complaints went completely unanswered.

         3 likes

  11. Barry says:

    And on Morning Reports the BBC managed to find someone who maintained that poor English wasn’t the problem but the lack of doctors who spoke Mandarin and other languages.

       3 likes

  12. George R says:

    “NHS foots £1m bill for Polish expectant mothers living in England to return home to give birth thanks to bizarre EU laws”

    By Liz Hull.

    http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2283699/NHS-foots-1m-Polish-expectant-mothers-living-England-return-home-birth-thanks-bizarre-EU-laws.html

       4 likes

  13. Ron Todd says:

    I would be very supprised if this gets anywhere. It is just Cameron after a good headline. Even if the liberals let him do it the EU would not.

       0 likes

  14. thoughtful says:

    A friend was telling the other day one of her Msulim ‘friends’ (She’s a bit dewy eyed that way!) has a new job, judging the communication abilities of foreign doctors for the NHS!
    This gorl doesn’t actually speak English like a native, but it just shows the lengths the far left public sector will go to, to avoid implementing government directives.

       3 likes

  15. George R says:

    Will INBBC give this Iraqi the Binyam Mohamed treatment?

    “Saddam torture doctor working on the NHS faces ban
    A doctor involved in treating Iraqis who were tortured during Saddam Hussein’s regime could be banned from working for the NHS.”

    http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/healthnews/9894306/Saddam-torture-doctor-working-on-the-NHS-faces-ban.html

       0 likes