Reference is made to an article on the front page of The Forum on Oct. 19th and entitled, "Panel: VA must pay."
The article is basically about the difference in salary the Veterans Administration pays to foreign doctors as compared to doctors who are U.S. citizens. I have no problem with the pay being equal, but maybe there should be a provision or two attached to it.
The last time I was a patient at the VA hospital, I had three doctors come in to my room to check on my progress and talk about the medications I was taking. Two were from India and the other from the United States. The two doctors from India spoke incessantly at the same time in some form of broken English I doubt I could have understood if only one of them had been speaking. I tried to stop them and explain I could not understand what they were saying, but they were so busy talking some kind of pidgin language all the while their hands and arms were swinging about.
I looked at the U.S. doctor and he just rolled his eyes as if to say there is nothing that can be done to make them stop. I finally ordered them out of my room, they left and the U.S. doctor took care of checking me over and seeing that everything was fine.
Maybe the provision or provisions be that will entitle them to equal pay is that they learn to speak the English language well enough to communicate with the patients who are all no doubt English speaking and to adopt doctor-patient techniques and manners consistent with those of the U.S. doctors. Until then, they are not performing at the same level as U.S. doctors and do not deserve the same rate of pay.
ADVERTISEMENT
Les Trnka
Waubun, Minn.
