maybe a good read
Here’s an immigration story you are unlikely to read in other newspapers, and don’t hear too often from the Government
By Jeremy Laurance, Health Editor
02 March 2004
They are of all colours, all backgrounds and from all points of the globe. Some came for love, some for money, some for a better life, but they are all working for one purpose  to keep the NHS going.
Home Office figures show that 44,443 healthcare staff from countries outside the European Union were issued with work permits last year, a 27-fold increase on the number in 1993.
They fill every role in the health service from doctors and nurses to pharmacists, radiographers and occupational therapists. They go where British professionals are reluctant to work  traffic-choked inner cities and grimy housing estates  and they perform the essential caring tasks that their British counterparts are reluctant to take on.
The North Middlesex University Hospital in Edmonton, north London, is typical of many that depend on this army of foreign healthcare workers, with nurses from Ghana, doctors from Pakistan and the manager of the intensive care unit from Kerala, south India.
The efforts of these overseas staff counter the charge that immigration is imposing an unacceptable burden on our most valued institutions.
As the Home Secretary, David Blunkett, tightens the screws on asylum-seekers and raises the bar to entry by citizens of the expanded EU, the British Medical Association said yesterday that foreign health workers were the lifeblood of the NHS. “These overseas medics have a vital role to play. It takes 10 years to train a GP and 15 years to train a consultant, so even though the Government is pouring money into recruitment now the effects will not be seen for many years,” a spokeswoman said.
Some sections of the press have honed their xenophobia with allegations of “health tourism” against foreign visitors bent on exploiting the NHS. They have mounted a sustained attack on immigration, with campaigns against “benefit tourists” and asylum-seekers who allegedly jump council house waiting lists.
The sensitive issue of immigration  and asylum in particular  is proving to be a minefield for ministers to negotiate. This was demonstrated last night when the Government suffered a backbench revolt over its plans to stop welfare payments to failed asylum-seekers. Twenty-eight Labour MPs backed an attempt to scrap the plans, but the move failed when it was voted down by 444 to 82.
While ministers have been eager to hail their own efforts to tackle the asylum issue, they have been less keen to trumpet the success of the growing army of immigrants who perform an invaluable role in the health service.
This is the other picture  of an NHS dependent on the commitment and labour of people who were not born here. Most go into the NHS, but some are recruited by the private and voluntary sectors. The vast majority are nurses: more than 27,000 were recruited in 2003.
The chief source is the developing world, with the Philippines topping the league last year with permits issued to 8,749 health workers, closely followed by India with 7,367. South Africa came third with 4,422. This has led to charges that Britain is stripping the developing world of its skilled staff.
Ministers banned recruitment from the hardest-hit countries in 2001 but struck deals with others, including the Philippines and India, which had a surfeit of staff. But private recruitment agencies have evaded the ban and Britain continues to hire staff from some of the poorest countries in the world. Of the top 25 countries from which Britain recruited last year, 15 are on the banned list.
John Reid. the Health Secretary, yesterday launched a £4m campaign to boost home recruitment across the NHS. A health department spokesman said four new medical schools would provide extra doctors in the long term but the NHS would continue to rely on overseas staff in the short term. Paul Burston, health spokesman for the Liberal Democrats said last night: "The NHS could not survive without foreign staff, especially as they work in some of the less glamorous jobs. There is no doubt we exploit overseas workers and we should be grateful they are rescuing us from failing to invest in a home-grown health service."
There is a worldwide shortage of skilled health workers, and a global market that governments, commercial agencies and individuals have learnt to exploit. The market is getting tougher as countries compete for extra pairs of skilled hands. In the UK the numbers coming from overseas are still a tiny proportion of the 1.3 million NHS staff  but they are a vital element that the health service cannot do without.
4 March 2004 22:28
source news.independent.co.uk/uk/health … ory=497010
Worried about your kids health for the future who will be looking after them i wonder
coming here nicking our jobs they should all be sent back 