I have now read Tanveer Ahmed's,article, and I totally agree with it. I also empathise with his exaggerated 'Australianism' since the Patel case.

I know absolutely nothing about the the qualifications or abilities of overseas doctors. I do know that many country towns would not have doctors if it were not for them - Indians included. My 92 year old mother had been cared for by an Indian doctor in a country town.

Patel is a bad man, and an incompetent doctor who has been found guilty of harming patients and is in jail pending an appeal. I hope the appeal judges reject the appeal, and lengthen his sentence.

Patel's type of evil could easily appear in a doctor of any race, with any sort of training. I'm sorry to disappoint those people who are convinced that I'm a racist.

Generally I think patients work out pretty quickly the good and not so good doctors. Where I live you need to book a long way in advance to see the doctors that people are happy to put their faith in. I have had a couple of bad experiences with doctors who could not speak English. They were bad doctors simply because they could not communicate at higher than grade 2 English. How they got accepted here I will never know. I think Regional areas become the training ground for some of these doctors.

The elephant in the room is the lack of supply of Australian doctors and specialists, which is linked in turn to the ham-fisted policies of both of the major political parties. The same problem is evident in nursing.

However it is not just in medicine and nursing that government has shown scant regard for educating and advancing its own youth, as evidenced by the continuing demand for overseas skills.

It seems that this article seeks to influence bodies representing doctors, and it can also be assumed a similar push would be aimed at the government bodies concerned with maintaining medical standards, on how they elect and appoint their members. However, as a consumer I am most concerned that the tests of comparable competence and satisfactory record of performance alone be applied as is the present case. Also, a lot of work has already been put into streamlining application (for professional recognition) processes in Australia and I would not like to see any pressure to reduce standards that could result in an inferior service being supplied in country and remote areas just so government can say it is providing treatment.

While the article is long on the usual myths and claims of discrimination and unfair treatment to make its case, it is very short on evidence to support those allegations. On the other hand, anecdotal evidence abounds that the public is discriminating in the right way of course and can be relied upon to support doctors who deliver a good service.

Frankly I find articles that dump on the general population as closet racists are usually ill-informed and wrong. Anyone who has ever had anything to do with people in country areas would be adamant that they are very thankful for any medical services they receive. What farmer with a crush injury, woman with an impending difficult birth, or parent with an acute fever sees the skin colour or origin of medical staff as impediments or as even relevant? It is word of mouth for kindness and competence that figure and as a given, availability.

Runner's comment on some doctors not being able to speak English properly is important. A doctor, no matter where he or she comes from might be brilliant medically, but if they cannot communicate well in the language of the country in which they wish to practise, they should not be permitted to practise medicine. People's health is just too important to tolerate poor communicaton skills.

I find the Indian accent very difficult to follow, but I also have problems understanding some Scottish accents, and some English and German accents - even though these three nationalities make up my own racial background.

Quite frankly, the problem lies with Australian authorities who should be vetting all applicants. They are clearly not doing this. Perhaps they don't even speak to the foreign doctors, and leave it to an immigration agent who is interested in his own turnover.

In another field, my daughter tried to get a Chinese chef on a 457 visa - good chefs being hard to find. She was assured, several times, by an agency that the man could speak good English. When he arrived, it was evident that he could not speak a word of English.

Australians are being hoodwinked into believing that all sorts of professional people from overseas are suitable for Australia, which they are definitely not. It all goes back to John Howard's era when it was much easier to import people than train our own. And, a change of government has done nothing to improve that situation; it has worsened in fact.

I agree with Leigh in that there should be at least a basic english language communication skill requirement for all health employees recruited to work within the Australian health system.

If they speak and understand more than one language, then even better, given our multicultural society.

The basic problem however,is that there are not enough Doctors and Nurses to serve the needs of both metro and rural Australian health patients.

This problem is not new of course. 25 years ago I was busy trying to explain to patients what Chinese doctors had just said to them. Although I could not speak any Chinese languages, I was able to understand their broken English speech after working with them for some time.

Patients back then complained about Asian doctors not understanding them, but now most people accept Asian doctors if they are good doctors, just the same as they decline or accept Australian-born doctors depending on how good they are perceived to be.

I live in a country area now, and the most popular doctor at our local hospital, by far, is an African-born GP who had a hard time with English and racism when he first arrived here.

People arriving at the emergency department now ask if he is on duty when they arrive, and are happy to see him. Almost all the local GPs refuse to go on a roster for our emergency department anymore, so we had to advertise overseas. What else could we do?

Many Australian-born, English speaking doctors are just not prepared to go to some country areas in Australia, so what else is the Government to do to provide medical coverage for remote areas?

Give these new foreign-born doctors a go before you condemn them,
You might just like what you see.

[Deleted for being only provocative].