THE General Medical Council, backed by the British Medical Association and others, is proposing induction courses to render those overseas physicians hoping to join the NHS aware of the language and general communication skills expected – alongside the professional, legal, ethical and cultural standards required – by that organisation, said to be the envy of the world, especially in the UK!.

Now, GMC BMA, etc, can you see that whacking great stable door over there which has been wide open for many decades?

Anyway, better late than never, they say, but it appears they will still be unable to test EU applicants’ knowledge of the vernacular, and I have come across a few indigenous ‘doctors’ who have scarcely known their backside from their elbow, not forgetting, of course, some ‘Third World’ ones who have been adequate to excellent, clinically, morally and linguistically.

DAVID DIMENT, Riverside Court, Oxford