Deportation of nurses will cost millions and endanger safety, RCN

By Iain MacDonald22nd June 2015News EnglandDeportation, Midwifery, News England, Nursing / Midwifery, Recruitment / Retention

Nurses from across the country have opposed Government plans to deport migrant workers which is feared will cost the NHS millions of pounds in recruitment and training costs and compromise patient safety.

New immigration rules mean that from 2017 non-European Economic Area migrants will have to leave the country after six years if they earn less than £35,000.

The Royal College of Nursing (RCN) has calculated that up to 3,365 nurses currently working in the UK will potentially be affected, who will have cost the NHS £20.19 million in recruiting them.

It added that if international recruitment stays the same as it is now, by 2020 the number of nurses affected by the threshold will be 6,620, employed at a cost of £39.7 million.

And if workforce pressures force a higher rate of international recruitment, the number of nurses affected could be 29,755, costing more than £178.5 million to recruit.

The RCN has warned this will intensify the severe shortage of nurses in the UK and leave hospitals with nothing to show for the millions of pounds spent on recruiting them.

At the RCN annual congress in Bournemouth, Dorset, delegates voted for a resolution that “calls on the UK Government to withdraw plans for the enforced removal of non-EU nurses if their salary after five years is less than £35,000” by 480 votes for, with four against, and six abstentions.

The vote was accompanied by the song Madness (They Call it Madness) by Madness.

Dr Peter Carter, RCN chief executive and general secretary, said: “The nursing shortage is about to get even worse; in 2017 thousands of foreign nurses are going to leave the country.

“We know how few nurses earn more than £35,000. That’s thousands of experienced staff committed to our health service, dedicated to the patients they care for being told to leave their homes in the UK.

“Across the country, health services rely on the good work they do, yet after spending time and money recruiting them, after investing time on their training, after supporting them to become valued members of staff, employers will have to let them go and find someone else to do their job.

“The Government must think again and make sure that nursing is not constrained by these illogical rules.”

Delegate Sarah Waters said: “We need to tell the Government they cannot enact this, it will be wrong. It’s not just a sharing of skills, it’s a sharing of cultures, beliefs and it all makes us better nurses.”

Dave Dawes, from the central Manchester branch, said: “This is just old-fashioned racism. We need to fight this agenda and we need make a really strong stand. All UK nurses are valuable members of our family despite whatever country they come from.”

The RCN is calling on the Government to reconsider the £35,000 salary threshold, add nurses to the list of occupations there is a shortage of, and to increase the number of UK nurse training places to reduce the over-reliance on overseas recruitment in the long term.

Dr Carter said ahead of the congress: “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.

“The NHS has spent millions hiring nurses from overseas in order to provide safe staffing levels. These rules will mean that money has just been thrown down the drain.

“The UK will be sending away nurses who have contributed to the health service 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 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.”

A Home Office spokesman said: “As the Prime Minister has made clear, the Government wants to reduce the demand for migrant labour.

“We changed the settlement rules in 2011 to break the link between coming to work in the UK and staying here permanently. From 2016, non-EEA workers will need to earn at least £35,000 to settle in the UK for longer than six years.

“There are exemptions to this threshold for occupations where the UK has a shortage – but the independent Migration Advisory Committee recommended against adding nurses to the Shortage Occupation List after taking evidence from groups including the Royal College of Nursing.

“Employers have had since 2011 to prepare for the possibility their non-EEA workers may not meet the required salary threshold to remain in the UK permanently.”