Medicine: Plight of Foreign Doctors

A 31-year-old Philippine doctor sat grimly in a Bronx hospital one day last week, hands clenched, anger and sadness on her face. In 1958 she had paid her own fare to New York, happy at the opportunity to work and study in the U.S. Now a senior resident at the hospital (salary: $3,180), she had earned the full respect of her colleagues. Said the medical superintendent: '"Outstanding—a record such as you have never seen."

Yet last week, like 2,000 other foreign interns and resident physicians at about 900 hospitals across the nation, she faced the loss of her job and possible...