Immigration and the NHS

Sorry, I forgot the second set of double brackets. I need to remember to preview my posts! I have now done so.

This graphic from today's Guardian shows the extent to which the NHS is dependent on staff from abroad. I'm not sure if I should be pleased about this or not. Are we 'stealing' qualified nurses and doctors from emerging economies, tempted by higher salaries and greater professional opportunities?

Of course we are. it costs those countries in dire need of doctors and nurses a fortune to train them- and then they lose them straightaway to us. But this is nothing new. Same here in Switzerland- many trained in the UK btw.

I remember in the 1950s we had Nigerian doctors and German nurses living in our house while they were training.
We had lawyers, architects, history students, etc. in the 50s and 60s and many of them were foreign. Someone from Sri Lanka, or Ceylon as it was then who had to go back to the war there. We certainly learn a lot about other nationalities. The NHS probably would not have been able to survive for so long if we had not encouraged other nationalities to come and work here.

Care home staff too.

I had a staff of over 24 and I and one other were the only two born in this country. The remainder were from Australia, NZ, India, Sri Lanka and the Philippines. Some were with me for many years and we could not have survived without them.

Yes, jobs both those requiring qualifications and those not, that UK health industry cannot fill from UK population.
We could train more doctors - but the medical profession seem to have a grip on supply and demand, plus a punishing training scheme for hospital doctors that dictates not only unsocial hours but multiple forced job moves (every year) until they get to consultant post.
We train lots of nurses but huge numbers are lost to the profession - they also have a very high rate of sickness absence.
There has been a huge amount of advertising and innovation in the area of teacher training in the last 10 years but there does not seem to be a darn thing done to encourage bright young people to choose nursing as a profession.
It is easier to recruit from the Phillipines (where they deliberately over train - - its a money earner because some of the wages go home)
In the last large GP practice I was with there were about 8 doctors and nearly all of them trained abroad. My MIL, living in a not very attractive part of the midlands has for many years only had foreign trained doctors as GPs (i.e. subcontinent).
Yes it is taking advantage of the training schemes in poorer nations