where do I start, looks like the government has pulled another ace out of the bag. Under new rules it seems that nurses who have been employed from outside the European Economic Area (EEA) must be earning £35,000 a year after being in U.K for six years or face being asked to leave the good old Great Britain. According to Royal College of Nurses (RCN) we could be set to lose over 3,000 nurse and the effects of these rules will start being felt by 2017. Now you might be one of these people who believe our nurses are on good pay but the average nurses pay is between £22,000 and £23,000 a year and to be earning the magic number of £35,000 you have to be at the top of the tree such as a senior nurse /team leader and even that depends where about in the U.K you work.
Royal College of Nurses (RCN) we could be set to lose over 3,000 nurse
Now if you are one of these people that think we’ll keep the good ones after 6 years send back the minor ones you are very much wrong. These nurses changing bed pans tending to patients dressing, running around the wards attending to our ever need are the foundations that our NHS is built upon and they are under paid over worked visit any hospital open your eyes and you will see this to be true.
This change in law brought in by the old coalition of the Conservatives and LibDems will have seen the NHS waste 20million recruiting and training these same nurses we are about to tell thanks for the help but bye bye. 20 million wasted but do we have the nurses to replace them well the media is constant telling us waiting times rising , lack of hospital beds and nurses having to work every hour under the sun so I guess no.
David Cameron defended the government’s position on Sky news by saying the Migration Advisory Committee (which advises the government on which occupations are on the shortage occupations list) had advised them, meaning they tell the Government which skill shortage could occur with the changes to the law. They believe nurses shouldn’t be on the list and to quote Cameron on Sky news “I think we should listen to their advice above all”. Well no actually I believe we should listen to the doctors and nurses who are on the front line or at least the RCN who oppose this law, I know who’s advice I would be listening too.
It just doesn’t make any sense that a nurse say from Thailand could move her family to Britain, tend to our sick, save lives , contribute to our tax system then after six years if they didn’t have a British passport get told see you later its madness . We are told immigrants are filling our hospitals for free care well that’s partly true it’s just they are filling the gaps in our staffing of the NHS not sponging our care and how do we treat them by saying we don’t care.
Dr Peter Carter, chief Executive & General Secretary of the RCN said ” Due to cuts to nurse training places, trusts are being forced into relying on overseas recruitment, as well as temporary staff, just to provide safe staffing. A cap on agency spending will make one of these options more difficult, and these immigration rules will limit the other” he went on to add The only way for the UK to regain control over its own health service workforce is by training more nurses. 37,000 potential nursing students were turned away last year so there are people out there who want to embark on a nursing career. There are clear signs of a global nursing shortage, meaning an ongoing reliance on overseas recruitment is not just unreliable but unsustainable. Unless we expand training and have enough nurses in this country, we will also be at the mercy of global trends which we can’t control”.
So what next well the RCN believe Spending vast amounts of money on recruiting overseas nurses who will only be in the health system for a short period of time is a waste of valuable NHS time and resources. While Trusts are forced into relying on international recruitment to make up staffing numbers, the RCN calls on the Government to add nursing to the list of shortage occupations and to reconsider the £35k salary threshold”.
The Government must take urgent steps to increase the number of UK nurse training places. This will reduce the over reliance on overseas recruitment in the longer term. So will this happen will the Migration Advisory Committee take heed well not according to Dr.Carter “The RCN submitted detailed, extensive and unambiguous evidence to the Migration Advisory Committee. Unfortunately, this advice was not heeded, despite the clear evidence of a serious shortage of staff in the nursing profession, and the impact this is having on patients. The RCN is now repeating its call to add nursing to the shortage occupation list.” So it seems as usual the Government will do what it wants against all good advice and put a further squeeze on our NHS don’t it just make you proud.
Special thanks to the RCN for there support in this article
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featured image created by Brian Falconer