A Pakistan-born GP has moved to Canada from the UK after experiencing racism at work - and said it's "unlikely" he'll return."

Saad Khan, 39, was working as a GP in Kettering, Northamptonshire, where he lived with wife Samantha before the couple made the move in July 2025.

He says he had to constantly justify himself as "one of the good ones" at work to patients, having to justify being a "good" Pakistani as opposed to being a threat. "

He says the NHS' zero tolerance policy towards hate is "hard to enforce". "

Saad says he was called the "P word," short for Pakistani, which he didn't know was a bad slur in some contexts."

The "P word" refers to migrants taking all the jobs, for example, and he "made a point" not to push back because he didn't want to be "singled out"."

He says people would ask, "Where are you really from? Where are your parents from?" - which he eventually would have to say Pakistan despite having a U.K. citizenship."

Saad moved to the UK from Qatar in 2017 where he had been practising for about six years and met his wife in December 2022.

Now living in Kelowna, British Columbia, Saad says he has been able to "make a difference" in at least 500 people's lives already working in Canada. "

He's touched numerous lives by being not only a doctor to a single patient, but the patients' children and so on.

Currently, Saad has a work permit but applied for residency - and says attaining a work permit was "easy"."

He says the work-life balance is better in Canada, with the same hours as the U.K. but nearly double the take-home pay.

Saad, a GP, from Pakistan, said: "It was a feeling of having to justify my existence again and again to prove I was one of the good ones. "

"I even had a patient come to me and ask, ‘did you come off the boat?' "

"We essentially keep on going at work. "

"Part of me was used to doing it all the time with patients, saying ‘I'm not a terrorist, I'm a good one'. "

"I don't want my child being called the 'P word,'" he said, noting he doesn't have children but plans to."

Saad initially trained at medical school in Pakistan, before moving to Qatar in 2013 to practice, moving to the UK in 2017 where he trained to become a GP.

He said: "As a doctor my job should be to help people not make sure I don't get abused. "

"At my practice in the UK, there was a poster on the wall saying the NHS has a zero tolerance policy towards hate. "

"It's a very hard thing to enforce. "

"It became a no-win situation because I wanted to help people even though they were saying bad words. "

"It's difficult to help when they think of you of the outsider."

"I decided with my wife we can't have this – we have to find a better situation"."

The couple chose Canada and made the move in July this year, with Saad starting his new role.

In a video on social media sharing his reasons for wanting to leave the UK, Saad says it was "unscripted and from the heart". "

He said: "At the end of the day a lot of colleagues in the UK who are similar demographically to me have reached out to me and said they feel the same way". "

The couple have settled into their new home and Samantha is awaiting authorisation to practise as an occupational therapist in Canada.

Saad said: "It's absolutely lovely, the people are warm, the weather is beautiful and the work is good. "

"In the UK as a GP I was a small cog in a very big machine. "

"No matter how effectively I do my job, if the machine is not working I can't make a difference. "

"I've felt that the government here, the money they have and resources they have are more and better used."

Saad said since being in Canada, he's already had the opportunity to sit down with David Eby, the Premier of British Columbia, equal to a UK senior politican, to share ways to make medical care better.

He says living in the UK, by comparison, he had struggled to ever even meet his MP.

Saad said: "I've actually made a difference in at least 500 lives but I was struggling to make a difference in the U.K. because the system is broken."

"When I moved to the UK I wanted to stay in the UK, it was home for me. "

"To the extent as a Muslim man I was wondering where will I get buried when I die. "

"It was that sort of emotional connection for me. "

"I thought I could either be spending another 30 years trying to fix an unfixable system, or I could prioritise my needs and move on."

"The UK in my heart is still home, it might take a few years before Canada becomes home but it's where I want to live"."