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NEW FIGURES FROM the UK have shown a drastic reduction in the number of nurses from other countries in the EU registering to work in Britain.
In July of last year, 1,304 nurses from the EU registered in Britain. That number had fallen drastically to 344 just two months later in September.
In April, just 46 EU nurse registered with the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC). To become a practising nurse or midwife in the UK, you must register with the NMC.
The figures were released to the Health Foundation under a Freedom of Information request.
The UK has repeatedly faces staff shortages in the nursing sector, and has recruited from Europe and further afield to plug the gap.
Around 57,000 EU nationals work in the NHS in the UK, with nurses accounting for 20,000 of these.
Anita Charlesworth, director of research and economics at the Health Foundation, said: “The recruitment and retention of nurses is one of the biggest challenges facing health and social care, with a shortage of 30,000 nurses in England alone.
The drop in EU nurses registering to work in the UK could not be more stark – just 46 registered to work in the UK in April. Without EU nurses it will be even harder for the NHS and other employers to find the staff they need to provide safe patient care. The findings should be a wake-up call to politicians and health service leaders.
Recruitment and retention of nurses has been a problem in Ireland’s health service also with the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation (INMO) warning earlier this year that nearly 2,000 skilled nursing staff leave the country each year.
INMO General Secretary Liam Doran also told TheJournal.ie in January that Irish nurses are sought after abroad and that the UK is usually an attractive proposition.
“In the UK, for example, they’re offering at least the same pay, bonuses are better, working hours are better, so are the staff levels,” Doran added.
Last month, Health Minister Simon Harris gave a commitment that student nurses and midwives would be offered full-time contracts after they graduated.
Harris said that he had “heard loud and clear from your union that we are only going to succeed if we attach the kind of priority to recruitment and retention that has never been seen before and that is exactly what we are doing”.
The Minister added that these weren’t simply “soothing political words”.
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Suppose that’s good news for uk nurses, there will be 1000 more jobs available when they qualify in a few weeks time.
However the uk has now cut the bursary. So not sure how many will be willing to fork out at least 36,000 on tuition fees alone to pursue a low wage job.
@Lily: I don’t think there’s a shortage of nursing positions in the UK. That’s the whole issue surely?
@Lily: really? The NHS need these nurses to function. What happened to the the €350 million a week to the NHS ? Oh wait….
@Deborah Behan: That’s the figure it costs the UK exchequer to pay NI’s bills every MONTH¡
@Paul Foot: WEEK*
@Paul Foot: that’s the dirty little secret SF won’t tell, they receive 211million stg a week from British taxpayers to keep it a float. They would of been better off handing it back than leaving the UK. Only problem is, Ireland couldn’t afford the extra cost and we don’t want it
Cholly appleseed. We? Speak for yourself.
@cholly appleseed: Correct – we could not afford it, with a €200+ billion National Debt! NI would bankrupt us again – ok, we were only almost bankrupted…
@cholly appleseed: we do want it. Soon. A single economy on this island would more than make up the cost of unification. Plus the smarmy spongers up north might actually have to work. Plus Spin Feign will have no excuses.
@Lily: there giving Ireland a wide berth as well.
@H0tt3rBank3r: “A single economy on the island would more than make up for the costs of reunification”. No it wouldn’t. A single economy isn’t magic and doesn’t automatically generate billions in extra tax. We would need billions per annum to subsidise NI. Their public sector alone is twice the size of our proportionately speaking and accounts for 30% of the NI workforce.
In other news, the figure for Ireland hasn’t changed. 0% of nurses want to come here and work for feck all.
@Seth Cheffetz: Meanwhile in Ireland nurses might get offered a contract to work on low pay with the promise of a raise of a percent or two over years, all while having to pay additional levies and work unpaid hours for nothing.
If they accept this ridiculous situation and say nothing they’re ‘angels’, however if they object and attempt to defend themselves they’re labelled greedy Public Service pariahs who should be satisfied with what they have.
My advice, next time a nurse is treating your child in an A&E Dept or nursing a loved one in a specialist unit, please don’t hesitate to explain your views. Seriously, don’t.
@Seth Cheffetz: Have you been in a hospital lately? You will find a lot of the nurses aren’t native and came here to work. The old trainee nurse accomadation was done away with to give it to foreign national born nurses with places to live.
@Kal Ipers: yes, my wife and I spent 4 solid months in the ICU when our twins were born at 24 weeks old. It was the most stressful period of our lives and we saw it all. There was some fantastic nurses. There was some that would barely bother to look at you. There was some that made some very questionable decisions. Most of them were from the Philippines I believe. Try spending Christmas in the ICU with a skeleton staff of nurses and none of them know what the alarms on the ventilator that is keeping your baby alive mean or what they should do.
They have not seen anything yet
Ah sure they’ll be grand….They’ll get highly trained nurses from the third world former colonies they’re snuggling up to…
Ireland cares because…….
@Paul: Because many of us work and holiday there, or have friends/family who do?
@Paul Foot: well u don’t see journal reporting on other things that affect those people…..
@Paul: because it is related to Brexit and Brexit is gonna have a massive impact on the economy of this country. Understand now?
@Kevin O’ Brien: it fails to compare with non EU applications.
Its just lazy reporting from watching Sky News….
@Paul: thejournal covers UK sport, politics, news etc. – almost on a daily basis. The UK is our largest trading partner, our nearest neighbour – and where most of us holiday and work (apart from here).
I’m sure this has nothing to do with an English proficiency test introduced late last year.
@Beachmaster: Exactly. There was a very similar drop in doctors when it was introduced for them. Not all due to Brexit, but Brexit will not help situation.
Isn’t that the whole point of brexit
Registered nurses in Ireland start at €28k and move to just over €44k, Not much different to UK salaries for the same level.
Would be nice if we didn’t have a situation where British hospitals were coming over to Irish universities and colleges and offering sweeteners to Irish nurses to move to the UK. Essentially steealing our human capital from under our noses. That should be banned. Shows the lunacy of Brexit, far from wanting to cut migration, the British are desperate for NHS staff from anywhere and are willing to bribe them to get them in!
We were so glad to have our student nurses get jobs and be trained by the NHS, and now you want to ban free thinking people from following suit…
So there were only 46 nurses from the EU I’m surprised, do Irish nurses going to UK to work also have to pass an English exam, are they included in the EU numbers?
Perhaps last July’s figures were just after they had all qualified from their various EU Colleges.
They wouldn’t register in April if they hadn’t finished their courses.
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