Lydgate, brain drain and the Maltese medical profession

Abstract

Globalisation causes the migration of all types of workers, including healthcare professionals, who may opt to seek richer pastures in the form of better paid and pensionable positions in countries other than their own. Dr Tertius Lydate in Eliot’s 19th century novel Middlemarch, while starting out with lofty ideals, rapidly became mired in financial difficulties and was constrained to seek more lucrative pastures outside Middlemarch. Maltese doctors are also poorly paid, and unless the local authorities ameliorate working conditions, the ongoing medical brain drain will worse with catastrophic consequences for the local NHS.