The local boys wouldn't touch it with a barge pole. So, in effect, geriatrics owes its origins and its beginning to the pioneers and the junior doctors from the Indian subcontinent - as simple as that.
(South-Asian-born geriatrician, interview C512/50/01, British Library Sound Archive, 1991
This two year ESRC funded project will undertake oral history interviews with working and retired South Asian geriatricians in order to explore their experiences and contribution to the development of the care of older people in the UK. It will highlight how migrants have shaped a speciality which whilst being at the heart of current NHS policies is marginalised and works with a devalued patient group.
The project is supported by the British Geriatrics Society and British Association of Physicians of Indian Origin.
