Being a nurse in the UK "holds little appeal"

By Nadeem Badshah

Dr Chand doubts "temporary measure" to hire Indian staff

CRUNCH talks to hire more nurses from India to work in British hospitals will do little to solve the staffing crisis, according to a former GP.

Dr Kailash Chand, the new honorary vice president of the British Medical Association (BMA), believes the plan is a short-term fix and staff in south Asia will have better opportunities in their home country than rescuing the NHS.

Health bosses are discussing with the Apollo Hospitals chain in India to lure nurses to work in the UK for two years and receive specialist training.

There are 40,000 nursing vacancies in England with the number arriving from the European Union plummeting by 96 per cent since last year’s Brexit referendum.

Dr Chand believes staff from abroad have been filling the gaps due to the number of training places for British employees being slashed since 2010.

He told Eastern Eye: “Derisory pay rises, the abolition of NHS bursaries and an ageing workforce mean very few British like to join nursing.

“Potentially making things even harder is Brexit, which could result in the nursing profession losing the tens of thousands of EU nurses, exacerbated by changes in immigration rules that made it harder for nurses from outside the EU, India included, to come to Britain.

“Nursing has been added to a list of shortage occupations, meaning it will be easier to recruit from outside the EU but it’s a temporary measure and holds little appeal for nurses who are likely to have far better opportunities in their home country or elsewhere.”

Ian Cumming, chief executive of Health Education England, insisted the shortage of staff had been caused by doctors and nurses going part-time or leaving the health service.

Dr Chand describes himself as a “foot soldier” of the BMA, the union that organised the wave of strikes among junior doctors last year in its row with the government over a new contract.

He graduated in medicine from the Punjabi University Patialia and was employed as a medical officer in Kurukshetra University, Haryana, before coming to the UK to work at Alder Hey Hospital in Liverpool and study tropical medicine.

As well as being a GP for 25 years, he has held a number of positions in his career including chair of the Tameside and Glossop NHS trust in Ashton-under-Lyne, Manchester, former deputy chair of BMA council and vocal campaigner.

And the father-of-two continues to speak out on the potential solutions to tackling the problems around staff morale and workloads in the NHS to stop medics quitting.

“What is needed from this government is to fund the NHS to the EU average, to restore the health secretary’s accountability to provide a universal health service and to stop the damaging drive towards a health market.

“We need an open and honest debate about the NHS. We need to rebuild rather than being offered a shopping list of new policies.

“We are at a cliff edge. Do we carry on into the unknown with broken funding promises and more cuts or do we cry foul now, and demand a rethink before it is too late?”

The cuts continue to impact the health service resulting in longer waiting times, rationing of care, job losses and ward closures at hospitals in London, according to a leaked report.

The document said care at 10 hospital trusts in Camden, Islington, Haringey, Barnet and Enfield could be cut back in a bid to plug a £183.1 million in the capital.

Nationwide, health bosses have to make at least £8 billion of savings by 2021.

Dr Chand branded the cut backs “a disaster waiting to happen”.

“The cuts could have a “devastating” impact on patients and would cost more in the long run.

“Patients will be denied treatment, waiting times for operations will lengthen and A&E and maternity units may be shut under secret NHS plans to impose unprecedented cuts to health spending.

“Fewer patients will be referred to hospital and support for people with severe health needs will be cut as part of the plan.”

Another problem the NHS is facing is cyber security in the wake of the hack in May where a message flashed up on computers across hospitals demanding $300 to unlock their files. A similar breach of security took place in Parliament last week (June 23) with up to 90 email addresses being accessed.

Dr Chand believes hospitals need to update their “ancient operating systems”.

“NHS Trust computers attacked by ransomware are probably running Windows XP. Released in 2001, it is now obsolete, yet 90 per cent of NHS trusts run this version of Windows on their approximately one million PC," he said.

“We should be prepared: more hospitals will almost certainly be shut down by ransomware this year. The NHS was repeatedly warned of cyber-attacks.

“Health secretary B needs to urgently review the security software of all the NHS computers and release extra funding for upgrading the systems urgently.”