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To the Editor.—Having been responsible for the teaching of medical students and residents in the field of surgery for some 20 years, I have studied in detail the article entitled "Surgical Manpower" (Arch Surg 108:637, 1974).
There is no question that the problem of the foreign medical graduate is a very major one as it concerns the United States. However, as it concerns the countries from which these foreign medical graduates come, and I am thinking primarily of the so-called developing countries, it is a sheer disaster. It has been estimated by some that up to 40% of recent graduates from a single medical college here in India have gone abroad.
There is no question that these physicians are needed in their home country. Furthermore, frequently the training they receive abroad is not pertinent to the conditions they will be facing when and if they return to their home