Career focus: Working with refugees and asylum seekers

“A neighbour came and drank the bottle of wine from home, so I got you some French wine for Christmas, I hope you will like it anyway,” the lady said. Being given presents from patients is probably always a humbling and possibly embarrassing experience, but when your patients live on vouchers valued at two thirds of the lowest level of income support and get wine sent from home just to give it to you, it becomes even more so.

My patients are all refugees or asylum seekers, and I am one of five salaried general practitioners in Glasgow caring for one of the larger contingents of dispersed refugees. Two of us work at one medical centre (the other three are elsewhere in the city) and our practice has a list size of about 5000, with 1800 refugees on the list. Both of us work mostly with the refugees, while the two partners remain more involved with the original patients. The refugees come from about 50 different countries and speak dozens of different languages, but most are Iranians, Afghans, Arabs, Kurds, Turks, Kosovaris, and Somalians.

When I tell people what I do, most respond with “That must be very difficult” or “How do you deal with all the languages?” In fact, I find it no more difficult than most other general practice work, and I don't often have to deal with the other languages. I do speak some of their languages, but I also have translators and many patients pick up English fairly rapidly. For example, one illiterate farmer from central Asia speaks five languages fluently, including …