Moktar Isaac, Kajetan K. Zakrzewski
The Anticipated influx of East European Psychiatrists - a sample of colleagues views from East Sussex, England 5
Summary The entry of East European countries to EU has raised hopes and fears in a number of debates. Doctors from the entrant countries are at the forefront of debate if not only for widely acknowledged shortages of doctors, in particular - psychiatrists, in UK. We conducted a small survey aiming to explore the opinion of local psychiatrists at East Sussex in terms of the perceived numbers and characteristics of their peers from Eastern Europe. Since neither real numbers nor the characteristics of potential arrivals were known at the time of this study , this survey may serve as a test of attitudes towards them , of their UK counterparts. The survey had an 89% response rate. The opinions varied according to respondents' grades and personal characteristics with consultants - more than other grades - sceptical about the numbers of likely arrivals and unreservedly in favour of an immediate absorption of East European colleagues into the UK system. |