1193 



doctors are now in the United States ; yet, according to Stevens and 

 Vermeulen, outside Bangkok, physician services are "woefully inade- 

 quate." And they add, "There are more Thai graduates in New York 

 than there are serving Thailand's rural population of 28 million." *'^° 

 A somewhat similar story could be told of Korean M.D.'s. Between 

 1962-68, 1,914 Korean doctors came to the United States, but only 49 

 had returned by early 1969. Between 45-60 percent of the graduates 

 of Korea's 11 medical schools find employment abroad. Meanwhile, 

 only 1,000 doctors are practicing in rural areas where about half (some 

 15 million) of the South Korean population lives, or by including 

 some small towns and a slightly different doctor definition, 5,400 doc- 

 tors for a population of 20 million.'*^^ Much the same could be said 

 for Iran, Lebanon, and Turkey. There are more American-trained 

 Iranian doctors in New York than all of Iran, yet Iran has a doctor- 

 to-population ratio of only 1 for every 3,220.*^^ 



In appraising medical brain drain from Lebanon, the UNITAR 

 stud}- declared : 



. The need for medical personnel has become even greater with the rapid popu- 

 lation increase. The loss of physicians with residency training has seriously af- 

 fected the health service as well as the establishment of new medical schools. 

 Hence, the outflow to the United States of eighty-nine physicians and surgeons, 

 twelve dentists and sixty-two nurses over a five-year period has had a great ef- 

 fect on the health system.*" 



Lebanon has a doctor-to-population ratio of 1 for 1,320.*^* 



In Latin America, the essentials are the same ; only variations here 

 and there. The Pan American Health Organization study (PAHO) 

 provides abundant evidence to show the negative effect of medical 

 brain drain on Latin America, though it varies from country to coun- 

 try. Quantitative losses, the report states, are "highly significant but 

 not catastrophic." ^^^ Every year an estimated 300 medical doctors emi- 

 grate to the United States from Latin America, representing about 8 

 percent of the annual output of all medical schools. The social loss is 

 magnified by the fact that 25 percent of those emigrating are potential 

 scientists and professors, that is, the builders of a nation's scientific in- 

 frastructure. According to a survey by PAHO, "The academicians in 

 the United States who are Latin American graduates believe that their 

 countries are losing some of their best phvsicians through migration to 

 the United States." *«« 



Most students of brain drain seem to concur in the judgment that the 

 LDCs suffer serious social and economic losses from medical brain 

 drain. Dr. ^Margulies told the House Government Operations Com- 

 mittee : 



There is no way to estimate the costs just as there are no hard facts on the 

 size or character of the brain drain. Certainly, for some countries the costs are 

 heavy, particularly when they include the loss of talented leaders and the assump- 



**> Stevens and Vermeulen, op. cit, pp. 49-50. 



«i Henderson, op. cit., p. 63. ^ , ^ r t^« x- ^ 



*82 Report of U.N. Secretary General, Outflow of Trained, Personnel from LDCs, Nov. 5, 



1968, p. 68. ^ ... 



According to Stevens and Vermeulen, Iran produces 600 medical graduates a year. At 



least 100 or each of the graduating classes from 1960 through 1969 are now in the United 



states. Many, if not most, they said, will remain ; in 1970 alone, 806 Iranian medical 



graduates took the American licensing examinations (p. 50). 



«3 UNITAR, Brain Drain from Five LDCs, 1971, p. 91. ,„„ »r ~ 



*•* Report of U.N. Secretary General, Outflow of Trained Personnel from LDCs, Nov. 5, 



*^'Repori on Brain Drain from Latin America, Pan American Health Organization, 

 1966, p. 34. » 



*3« TK(^ pT,. 34 and 17. 



