Beyond numbers: the NHS International Fellowship Programme in Psychiatry

The recent controversy surrounding the National Health Service (NHS) International Fellowship Programme (IFP) for consultant psychiatrists (Patel, 2003) has raised a number of important issues. In particular, the issue of recruiting in an under-resourced developing country, where skilled and trained professionals are in short supply but where demand is huge, has exposed the duplicity with which many developed countries interact with developing countries. Although countries such as the UK are forever talking about strengthening the research and training capacity of these countries, they have no qualms about taking trained professionals for their own needs (Goldberg, 2003). Holsgrove (2005) has defended the IFP and tried to counter many of the arguments raised by those opposing it (Patel, 2003; Khan, 2004; Ndeiti et al, 2004).