Quote Originally Posted by gugi View Post
It appears to me you don't really know much about the current tests, although I'd be rather interested in your idea of how and by whom 'stricter guidelines' should be determined and enforced.
That's a bit bold, but OK - maybe "stricter" is a poor choice of words. If tests are already assessing fluency then they don't need to be "stricter," I was only emphasizing that there needs to be some minimum level being tested. How and by whom? Why wouldn't the current test-makers and administrators determine the guidelines and create testing by whatever standards are in place? The only thing that would change is adding questions or components specifically for fluency in English, perhaps as an oral exam or interview, and leave the remaining tests untouched. (The tone sorta implies that you expect my answer to be a little loopy... Just sayin'.)

Quote Originally Posted by sachin View Post
...IMO a doctor should be fluent enough in the local language so as to be able to communicate with the patient about his problems and the possible solutions...

I agree wholeheartedly that there is an increased likelihood of medical errors if there is mis-communication between the patient and his doc but that could be equally true for a fluent English speaker. I would guess that a well-trained doc (fluent or non-fluent English speaker) would try and understand the patient's symptoms correctly before prescribing anything to him/her. In my experience more often than not it is the patient who fails to make any sense of the doc's medical jargonistic crap. Even very fluent English speakers (US and non-US) forget that they are not yapping in a department meeting but are in fact talking to someone who simply is not familiar with medical terms...
This is exactly my point: While foreign-language-speaking doctors may be able to speak English in strict medical terms, we are taking for granted the requirement that medical knowledge needs to be reworded for laypersons during consultations. Sure, it's tough even for fluent English speaking doctors to translate medical jargon for patients. This only reenforces the point. How tough will it be for non-fluent English speakers?