Tories Plan To Kick 30,000 Nurses Out Of Britain

                             

David Cameron’s new immigration laws mean workers recruited from outside the EU since 2011 who earn less than £35,000 a year after six years will have to go home.

Up to 30,000 overseas nurses face the axe under barmy Tory immigration laws that will spark an NHS staffing crisis.

Non-EU staff on less than £35,000 after six years here are to be kicked out. The Royal College of Nursing said: “This will cause NHS chaos.”

Already buckling under the ­pressure of savage Tory cuts, the NHS faces further turmoil with the axing of 30,000 foreign nurses.

But critics warn it will leave hospitals with a critical shortage of nurses at a time when more and more will be needed to cope with an aging population and the devastating effects of social care cuts.

And it could also mean up to £180million spent recruiting foreigners only to kick them out six years later will be wasted.

The Royal College of Nursing warned the move would put patient lives in danger and called on the Government to exempt nurses from the draconian new law.

Chief executive Dr Peter Carter said: “The immigration rules for health care workers will cause chaos for the NHS and other care services.

“At a time when demand is increasing, the UK is perversely making it harder to employ staff from overseas. Due to cuts to nurse training places, trusts are being forced into relying on overseas and temporary staff, just to provide safe levels. A cap on agency spending will make one of these options more difficult, and these ­immigration rules will limit the other. The UK will be sending away nurses who have contributed to the NHS for six years.

“Losing their skills and knowledge and then having to start the cycle again and recruit to replace them is completely illogical. The NHS has spent millions hiring nurses from overseas to provide safe staffing levels. These rules will mean money has been thrown down the drain. Trusts are being asked to provide safe staffing with both hands tied behind their backs.

“Without a change to these ­immigration rules the NHS will continue to pay millions to temporarily rent nurses from overseas.

  

“The only way for the UK to regain control over its own health service ­workforce is by training more nurses.”

Under previous immigration rules, there was no income threshold or time limit. The RCN ­estimates 90% of nurses hired by the NHS from outside Europe will not have hit £35,000 within six years. The cut-off date for the new rules was set at 2011, meaning the first batch of nurses earning less will be sent home in 2017.

It costs £6,000 to recruit a nurse from outside Europe. The RCN, which began its annual conference in Bournemouth yesterday, said it is not certain how many are currently working in Britain. But it warned that if recruitment continues to rise, the number of those hit by the ­immigration law could reach 29,755. And it will have cost the NHS £180million.

A Home Office spokesman said: “There are exemptions to the £35,000 threshold for occupations where the UK has a shortage. But the independent ­Migration Advisory Committee ­recommended against adding nurses to the list after taking evidence from groups including the Royal College of Nursing. Employers have had since 2011 to prepare for this.”

But Dr Carter said: “The RCN submitted detailed and ­unambiguous evidence. This was not heeded, despite the evidence of a serious shortage of nurses. We repeat our call to add nursing to the list.”

Who's on the government shortage occupation list?

Nurses may not be on the list of shortage occupations, but ballet dancers, head chefs and nuclear waste managers are.

Despite there being clear evidence of a desperate lack of the vital ward staff, the ideology-driven Tories have declared there is no such thing and refuse to exempt them from the £35,000 salary threshold that would allow them to stay.

The new immigration rules on recruiting staff from outside the EU will affect nurses from countries such as Australia, America, China, India, the Philippines, Canada, New Zealand and South Africa.

Those wishing to stay after six years and who do not earn £35,000 a year will have to start applying for indefinite leave after five years. Nurses who arrived before 2011 are not affected by the new law. The exemption list also includes geoscientists, hospital radiology consultants, radiographers, paramedics, science teachers, children's social workers and visual effects animators.

The Home Office said: "We changed the settlement rules in 2011 to break the link between coming to work in the UK and staying here permanently."

Analysis by Andrew Gregory

I reported earlier this year there were 52,000 applicants for 21,205 student nurse places in 2014 alone. The crisis the NHS faces could have been avoided had Westminster invested in training instead of cutting it. The result is that with a lack of homegrown nurses, chiefs have had to look abroad.

Foreign nurses make an enormous contribution but now those we have relied on for years face having to leave, which is unfair. The Government can still avoid chaos by adding nurses to the list of occupations exempt from its new immigration rules.

In the long term, it needs to radically rethink how it approaches staffing.

Source: here