According to recent research, the NHS does not have enough nurses hence they are looking to hire more from overseas. Nursing times reported that nearly 1400 physicians were last year recruited by 40 hospitals besides 41 more hospitals are looking to follow suit.
Considering that over the last three years places offering the nursing course have decreased by 2500, Maria Bentley of Nottingham University Hospitals Trust among other directors are recruiting more from Europe to fill the gap.
Maria Bentley added that, the nursing sector lacked enough supply of staff and it was far much worse than the previous year, considering that in the last six months they had not received any new applications.
From the 29 countries, supplying nurses to Hospitals in Britain, Portugal and Spain seem to offer the highest number of nurses. As mentioned by Dr Peter Carter who is the chief executive of the Royal College of Nursing, such methods of looking for nurses was common in NHS.
Dr Peter Carter also said how he was not pleased with the reduction of nursing training centres and removal of different nursing posts besides the move to hire nurses from overseas. According to Peter Carter, it was a fact that NHS was facing difficulties due to lack of enough workforce and that the services offered to patients was suffering.
According to a Department of Health Spokesperson, hiring nurses from overseas was not new and in any case, the overseas nurses had to prove their competence and communication skills.
