Book Review

摘要

As the United Kingdom faces an era of NHS staff shortages in the fallout from the Brexit vote and clampdowns on immigration, Douglas Haynes’ volume on the regulation of overseas practitioners offers a timely reminder that Britain has long pitted its medical needs against its protectionist instincts. Covering the period between 1850 and 1980, examines the global influence of British medicine by charting the thorny negotiations that allowed British practitioners to work abroad, and their overseas counterparts to train in Britain. This sprawling topic is made manageable by a focus on the actions of the General Council of Medical Education and Registration of the United Kingdom (GMC). While the GMC was a neutral organisation charged with ‘protecting the public’ by maintaining a register of licensed practitioners, this task was often burdened by political expectations and professional pressures. As a result, Haynes shows how the GMC acted as a gatekeeper to ‘British medicine’ by preserving its largely white, male character – even when selectively permitting foreign and female doctors to cross the threshold.