Zimbabwean nurses face uncertain future in UK

Zimbabwean nurses face uncertain future in UK

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By Mduduzi Mathuthu

ZIMBABWEAN healthcare workers in the United Kingdom face financial ruin and an uncertain future following new government directives.

The Home Office has announced that from August 14, general nurses would be removed from the Skills Shortage Occupations list.

The new moves will make it harder for nurses applying for work permits from Zimbabwe to succeed, and may now mean that nurses already working for the National Health Service (NHS) will find it harder to renew their work permits.

The changes are not aimed at Zimbabweans alone, but all "foreign-born nurses".

An immigration adviser said: "These changes will dramatically alter the way Britain recruits nurses, and many people will find it harder to get nursing jobs now. Those with work permits no longer have any guarantees they will be renewed when they expire."

The NHS has also twisted the knife on nursing agencies by forming its own in-house health employment agency -- NHS Professionals -- while cutting back on part-time staff.

The new changes also affect psychiatric nurses while only Band 7 or 8 NHS employees will remain untouched. These are mainly doctors and specialists in audiology, sleep/respiratory physiology, neurophysiology, cardiac physiology, operating theatre nursing, clinical radiology, pathology and critical care.

All work permit applications for UK entry received after August 14 for nursing posts other than the eight listed above will now be subjected to a "resident labour test", the Home Office said.

It said: "Employers will be required to submit evidence that posts have been advertised, with full details of those who applied and were interviewed, and why resident nationals were not considered suitable.

"Only when the resident labour test has been satisfied will consideration be given to issuing a work permit."

This week, the NHS began issuing notices, mainly to agency staff, informing them that their services were no longer required. The NHS says the move will save the health service billions of pounds as agency workers earned almost twice as the permanent staff.

Zimbabwe has been losing thousands of health professionals every year as they seek better working conditions in Europe, New Zealand, Australia and the United States.

Last year, the British Medical Association and the Royal College of Nursing petitioned G8 leaders to tackle the "poaching" of overseas healthcare workers.

UK doctors called for "ethical recruitment" and warned that Sub Saharan Africa's healthcare system had been crippled by the "brain drain".
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