Revisiting Post-war British Medical Migration: A Case Study of Bristol Medical Graduates in Australia

Abstract

Between 1954 and 1963, c. 4,000 British-trained doctors migrated to countries including Australia, Canada and the USA. Historians have positioned their motivations to migrate as either primarily ideological (opposition to 'socialised medicine') or economic (poor prospects within the NHS structure). Post-war British medical migrants are, however, understudied. This article adds to the growing body of literature on twentieth-century medical migration; it details the transnational lives of a group of Bristol doctors in Australia. Their medical lives are used as a case study to explore prospects in the NHS'particularly for GPS, contextualising these doctors' decision to migrate. It continues by tracing the subsequent careers of this Bristol group in Australia. In doing so, it highlights the role of medical networks in understanding motivations to migrate, and the early readjustment of medical migrants. It also reveals the integral role British doctors played in alleviating GP shortages in rural Australia.