The Hindu : Front Page : U.K. ban will hit recruitment of nurses from India

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Jul 05, 2006

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U.K. ban will hit recruitment of nurses from India

Hasan Suroor

LONDON: In a move that will affect thousands of potential recruits from India, Britain has slapped a ban on recruitment of overseas nurses from outside the European Union (EU), in order to give priority to domestic candidates.

It, however, will not affect foreign nurses already working in Britain.

Under the new rules, to come into force next month, the National Health Service (NHS) will be allowed to make recruitment from outside the EU countries only when shows that suitable candidates are not available locally.

Up to 12,000 overseas nurses from non-EU countries come to Britain every year — mostly from India, Pakistan, the Philippines and a host of African countries.

In 2004-2005, the largest contingent of non-EU foreign nurses came from India. Out of the 11,477 recruited, 3,690 were from India.

Rule on foreign doctors

The ban, which will affect only junior nurses, follows the tougher immigration rules introduced recently for foreign doctors from non-EU countries.

Like the nurses, they will now be required to obtain a work permit to come and train or work in Britain and permits will be issued only against specific job vacancies for which hospitals are not able to find suitable domestic candidates.

"No shortage"

The Government justified the ban, saying that there was no longer shortage of locally trained junior nurses.

Health Minister Lord Warner said extra investment in training of nurses meant that there was no longer a need to recruit junior staff from abroad.

In any case, he said, large-scale recruitment of overseas nurses was always meant to be a short-term measure.

But the Royal College of Nurses (RCN) criticised the ban, saying it would have a "far-reaching" impact on services.

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