The NHS’s over-reliance on nurses and midwives from abroad is ‘unsustainable’, officials warned today.
Figures suggest that the number of UK-trained nurses registered to work in Britain has risen by 22,000 since 2019.
Still, this is half the rise in staff trained abroad over the same period, which is closer to 44,000. It means that international recruits make up two-thirds of the growth.
Health authorities said the figure indicates the NHS is relying too heavily on foreign recruits to solve vital staffing problems.
And they made new calls to the government to deal with the personnel crisis.
India and the Philippines account for the lion’s share of international nurse recruitment for 2021-22, but a fifth came from ‘red list’ countries where the NHS is prohibited from actively poaching nurses. These were Nigeria, Ghana, Nepal and Pakistan. This data, from the UK Nursing and Midwifery Council, covers the period before Britain entered into a special agreement with Nepal to allow the NHS to recruit nurses from the country
An analysis of Nursing and Midwifery Council figures by the Nuffield Trust found that two-thirds of all new nursing and midwifery staff in the three years since September 2019 have been international recruits. non-British personnel, while only 22,226 were UK-trained
While the workforce of full-time equivalent adult nurses, who account for most nurses in the NHS in England, has risen, the number of total nurse vacancies has remained stubbornly high, official figures show. This has made the NHS essential when it comes to tackling staff shortages
Miriam Deakin, director of policy and strategy at NHS Providers, told MailOnline today: ‘Chronic staff shortages have meant that the healthcare sector has become increasingly reliant on nurses and health professionals from around the world to deliver care to patients.
‘The contribution of these employees is invaluable, but over-reliance on international recruitment is not sustainable.’
She added: ‘We need to invest significantly in expanding the number of trained staff in the UK, alongside the continued recruitment of colleagues from abroad.
‘It is vital that the government publishes the fully funded long-term staffing plan for the NHS so that we can make real progress in addressing serious staff shortages and boosting education and training. We can’t afford to wait any longer.’
Meanwhile, Dr Billy Palmer, senior fellow at the Nuffield Trust, said: ‘Turning off the tap on international recruitment is simply not feasible or desirable for the NHS.
‘Our health services depend on foreign nurses, who on average stay with the NHS longer than their UK-trained counterparts.
“But we know that international recruitment cannot be the answer to ensuring we have the staff we need to keep the service running.”
He added: ‘Even now the NHS competes with other health systems for staff abroad and in some cases our working conditions, pay and career prospects look unfavorable to other countries.
Hiring more home-grown NHS staff is rarely a quick process, but there are immediate steps that government should focus on, including making public services more attractive to graduates and reducing the record number of staff working for them. chooses to leave the NHS.’
The most recent data from the Nursing and Midwifery Council shows that almost half of all nurses and midwives (23,408) joining the register in 2022 were trained outside the UK.
Currently around a fifth (19 per cent) of the UK nursing and midwifery workforce is made up of those who have been trained abroad.
Some 23,444 people who trained outside the UK joined the register between April 2021 and March 2022, nearly double the previous year (9,884).
Of these recruits, two-thirds came from India and the Philippines alone.
Caroline Waterfield, Director of Development and Employment at NHS Employers, told MailOnline today: ‘NHS leaders are immensely grateful for the commitment of all our staff, including the talented individuals who decide to leave their home countries to work in the NHS.
‘As a result of the government’s commitment to growing the workforce, leaders have seen an increase in the number of nurses joining the NHS, mainly in hospitals with smaller numbers in social care and community settings.
She added: ‘However, we know that the growing number of staff being recruited from abroad is highlighting the overall gap between supply and demand. This requires urgent and sustained attention, including long-term financing coupled with a long-term workforce plan.”
The number of internationally trained nurses joining the NHS has skyrocketed in recent years. The number has risen year on year, minus an outbreak of the Covid pandemic that has hampered immigration, data from the Nursing and Midwifery Council shows. The number of international nurse recruits is now almost equal to the number of UK nurses entering the profession for the first time
NHS data shows efforts to get more nurses into healthcare are barely keeping pace with numbers of experienced nurses quitting
It comes amid a widespread healthcare staffing crisis, with the government earlier this month considering drastic proposals to allow aspiring doctors and nurses to work in the NHS without going to university.
It could be that school leavers are enrolling in an apprenticeship scheme to ‘earn as they learn’, with officials hoping that eventually a third of all nurses could be trained through this radically new approach to recruitment.
These plans are expected to be laid down in full in the long-awaited long-term workforce plan, which could come in a matter of weeks.
Health secretaries have been turning to the foreign sector for years as an easy, quick solution to bolster the workforce.
Internationally trained nurses must register with the NMC to work in the UK and pass an English language exam before being allowed to practice, if their qualification has not been taught in English.
They must also pass an aptitude test.
In 2019, the government pledged to recruit an additional 50,000 nurses for England by the end of March 2024.
While it is expected to meet this target, its heavy international recruitment has played a vital role in this.
In March, the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) again updated its code of conduct for the international recruitment of health and social care personnel in England.
The code prohibits “active recruitment” from World Health Organization designated “red list” countries.
But the code does not prevent individual health workers from ‘red list’ countries from seeking self-employment.
However, UK employers should not actively recruit from those countries, the DHSC warns.
Experts estimate that by 2030 there will be a global nurse shortage of 13 million, particularly in Southeast Asia and Africa.
It comes as union leader Pat Cullen this week called on Health Secretary Steve Barclay to resume wage negotiations with a proposed double-digit increase.
Hundreds of thousands of members of the Royal College of Nursing (RCN) will vote next week on whether or not to go on strike. after the existing six-month mandate expired at the beginning of the month.
This could lead to nurses’ strikes until Christmas, forcing the cancellation of thousands more surgeries and appointments.
The majority of nurses’ unions voted in favor of the government’s offer of a five per cent pay rise plus a one-off payment worth up to £1,600 in England earlier this month.
But nurses in the RCN rejected the deal with a narrow majority, leading the general secretary to admit she had “underestimated” the members after advising them to vote for it.