Hundreds of foreign nurses on the way to Leicester

[davieG]

Leicester's hospitals are having to recruit more than 300 extra nurses from overseas because of a severe shortage in this country.

Nearly 100 have already been recruited from Spain and Portugal and will begin work in the new year, while more are being taken on from Ireland, Italy and Greece.

The Royal College of Nursing said the situation reflected a nationwide problem with a lack of training places.

The hospitals – Leicester Royal Infirmary, Glenfield and the General – want to increase staff numbers to 5,000 permanent nurses and health care assistants. It follows a review of staffing numbers and the quality of care given to patients, and will lead to more nurses and staff on the wards.

Normally, there is a turnover of about 35 nurses a month as people leave and are transferred. This is mostly covered by recruitment within the UK.

However, the additional nurses required as a result of the review means the hospitals have had to go overseas.

A spokesman for the Royal College of Nursing said a cut in the number of training places over the past three years was forcing overseas recruitment.

He said: "There are about 10 applicants for every student place, so it is not as if people do not want to be nurses.

"This is not a problem just in Leicester, but nationwide.

"More and more nurses are reaching retirement and not enough newly-qualified nurses are coming through."

Nearly £6 million is earmarked to put more nurses on the wards.

Carole Ribbins, director of nursing at Leicester's hospitals, said: "We reviewed the ratio of nurses to beds on every ward and found we needed about 400 additional staff."

The levels of nurses the three hospitals have set include having 6.6 nurses to cover an intensive care bed over a 24-hour period; on a specialist ward – such as elderly care – the figure is between 1.4 to 1.6 nurses per bed; and on a general ward, such as orthopaedics, it is 1.1 to 1.3 nurses.

Ms Ribbins said taking on more staff would be better for patients and less expensive, as agency staff have to be paid at a higher rate.

A spokesman for Leicester's hospitals said efforts to recruit in Britain only cover staff turnover, rather than boosting numbers.

Geoffrey Smith, of the Leicester Mercury Patients' Panel, said: "I welcome this initiative to increase the number of nurses and to establish the numbers needed for each ward. It will ensure our hospitals are seen to be acting to provide best quality of care."

A Department of Health spokesman said: "Overseas nurses make a very valuable contribution to NHS patient care but should only ever work in the NHS if they have proven their competence and language skills.

"Staffing numbers fluctuate monthly, but overall there are over 4,400 more clinical staff in the NHS since May 2010, while the number of admin staff, managers and senior managers has fallen by nearly 22,900."

Read more: http://www.leicestermercury.co.uk/NHS-TURNS-FOREIGN-HELP/story-20115920-detail/story.html#ixzz2lNroWXRj

[davieG]

Do these people really know what they are doing how can you be short of 400 nurses and not know and then need a review to find out. 

 

We seem to go from one crisis to another, too many nurse cut back, cut training, oh wait not enough nurses let's recruit, not enough training places or trained nurses.

 

This sort of back and forth has been going on as long as i can remember.

[Rincewind]

You may be treated quicker now

[Fox92]

So we have to make cuts and now we're after them again. Instead of looking abroad, why not ask those people who lost their job to come back? You're not telling me there aren't enough nurses in this Country...

[Zingari]

from the article;

A spokesman for the Royal College of Nursing said a cut in the number of training places over the past three years was forcing overseas recruitment.

 

It's not something that anyone could realistically have predicted then ?

jesus wept , the place is  run by feckin idiots 

[DennisNedry]

Most nurses in Leicester are foreign anyway, who cares so long as they are qualified and do a good job.

[Zingari]

Most nurses in Leicester are foreign anyway, who cares so long as they are qualified and do a good job.

 

 

maybe the unsuccessful applicants for nursing training for the last 3 years who could be trained due to cuts .

[Guest MattP]

maybe the unsuccessful applicants for nursing training for the last 3 years who could be trained due to cuts .

 

Why would someone training to be a nurse be affected by 'the cuts', the entire project was ringfenced.

[DennisNedry]

maybe the unsuccessful applicants for nursing training for the last 3 years who could be trained due to cuts .

 

It's cheaper to hire fully trained nurses from abroad than train them here.

 

Immigration is bad in so many ways, this is a positive example of it, so I'm not going to moan too much.

[1964FOX]

This is just a combination of too many admin roles in the NHS  deciding it's good to cut training but keep their jobs because they are essential unlike doctors and nurses that we can do without. Same with any organisation though, managers always survive and those who actually do the work are made redundant.

[Guest Col city fan]

So we have to make cuts and now we're after them again. Instead of looking abroad, why not ask those people who lost their job to come back? You're not telling me there aren't enough nurses in this Country...

No, there simply aren't enough nurses who have been trained in this country. Due to two reasons.. Less places available and less applicants now it's become all degree.

Finally, people are leaving because the demands placed upon them grow and grow and grow.

It's of no surprise to me.

[Zingari]

Why would someone training to be a nurse be affected by 'the cuts', the entire project was ringfenced.

 

Am I missing something here ?

 

taken from the above article;

A spokesman for the Royal College of Nursing said a cut in the number of training places over the past three years was forcing overseas recruitment.

 

 

Surely that means there wouldn't be a shortage ( or at least less of a shortage) if there had been more nurses trained in the last 3 years?

 

I'm not complaining too much though , I bet Spanish and Portuguese  nurses are much hotter than our Hattie Jacques lookalikes   

[Rincewind]

Catch 22 trainee nurses sometimes pack it in or move abroad because of the workload caused by there not being enough nurses wanting to work for less pay and long hours.

There are some though as portrayed in a recent TV programme. One bloke opted in A&E for a nurse rather than the better paid doctor because he wanted to interact with people father than mostly admin work.

[Webbo]

There are some though as portrayed in a recent TV programme. One bloke opted in A&E for a nurse rather than the better paid doctor because he wanted to interact with people father than mostly admin work.

That was" Meet the Fockers" Ken.

[Rincewind]

Never saw the programme but was told about it. About an emergency ward I think.

[ADK]

Yeah lets not bother educating our children, we'll just hire immigrants to do all the work.

[Guest]

Yeah lets not bother educating our children, we'll just hire immigrants to do all the work.

And then stoke up the anti immigration rhetoric when needed.

This country is run by people with such a lack of foresight or common sense it's laughable.

[Fox42]

Nurses from Spain, Portugal, Ireland, Italy and Greece. Five of the most unstable financial EU nations/economies in recent times...

[MikeyT]

I work at the LGH and can categorically say, hand on heart that we need a lot more nurses there. 

[lavrentis]

Do not understand any of this logic in the original post

[Guest]

I work at the LGH and can categorically say, hand on heart that we need a lot more nurses there.

I'm not sure anyone would disagree with you Mikey. Just seems illogical to import skills rather than invest in people who reside here already to many people I'd guess.

[MikeyT]

I'm not sure anyone would disagree with you Mikey. Just seems illogical to import skills rather than invest in people who reside here already to many people I'd guess.

Oh I know mate, I was just agreeing with the fact we need more, whether home grown or from overseas. Just need more, plain and simple.

[ADK]

Hopefully they aren't all plain and simple.

[Matt]

Wrong. Especially when the cuts that have been made and English people after spending lots of time and money studying hard for a worthwhile job and career have lost their jobs to be replaced by foreign imports.

 

However, I'm sure people gave arguments for and stood up for foreign people, mainly Poles who are taking many people's job's in the building trade when I got made redundent only to be replaced 3 months down the line with Poles.

[Jon the Hat]

I feel sorry for the poorer countries who train up the nurses only for them to come to the UK.  Harsh.