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Nursing to stay on shortage occupation list, say Whitehall migration advisers

Non-EU nurses must continue to be allowed into UK to help fill workforce gap, ministers told

The Department of Health has been criticised for a lack of workforce planning and over-reliance on the recruitment of overseas nurses.

The Migration Advisory Committee (MAC) has ‘reluctantly’ agreed to recommend up to 5,000 non-European Union nurses can enter the UK each year.

MAC chair Sir David Metcalf said foreign nurses are not a long-term solution to nurse recruitment problems: ‘It is with great reluctance we have decided to put nurses on the list. But we do not want to put the health of the nation at risk.’

In a report published today, the MAC, an independent advisory body, criticised the government for failing to maintain a sufficient supply of UK nurses. 

‘The DH and the trusts view non-EU nurses as a “get-out-of-jail-free” card. Really they should be doing more workforce planning,’ he said.

The government has an annual cap of 20,700 non-EU workers able to come to the UK. The committee recommended the recruitment of up to 14,000 overseas nurses in the next four years. 

Professor Metcalf found evidence non-EU nurses are often paid up to £6,000 less per year than British and EU nurses. He told a press conference: ‘I spoke to a recruiter who had been asked to recruit nurses at the lowest pay point.’

The MAC concluded that nurse shortages are caused by factors including NHS budget pressures and loss of almost one fifth of training places between 2009-2013.

Professor Metcalf called for pay reform saying: ‘The DH seems to have ignored that pay is a factor.’

He also criticised the government for failing to anticipate nurse shortages and called for flexible working and supplements to discourage nurses from retiring at 55, the age at which they can claim the NHS pension.

RCN head of policy and international affairs Howard Catton welcomed the decision and said: ‘We wholeheartedly support the MAC in this. Having nurses on the shortage list has created a supply avenue that we could ill afford to lose in the current climate.’

Unison head of nursing Gail Adams said: 'The NHS is still desperately short of nurses, so hospital trusts will have breathed a collective sigh of relief that they are to be allowed to continue recruiting staff from overseas.

'Ministers knew back in 2010, when they slashed the number of training places, that they were storing up problems. That ill-judged decision gave trusts no option but to look abroad.'

A DH spokesperson said: ‘We are pleased the MAC has recommended that nurses remain on the occupation shortage list but, at the same time, we are already delivering our plan to train more homegrown nurses.’ 

The Home Office will now consider the recommendation.