Kerala tackles nurse-recruitment racket

Dubai: A senior official from the Indian state of Kerala has promised hassle-free staffing of nurses to the UAE by taking measures to protect applicants from fraudulent recruitment agencies.

Kerala state minister of health, Adoor Prakash, met with senior health ministry officials in Dubai and discussed the staffing requirements ahead of a memorandum of understanding (MOU) that will be signed in India next week. The MOU will be signed on Tuesday during the visit of Minister of Labour Saqr Gobash Saeed Gobash to India.

Global trend

UAE hospitals are facing a shortage of professional nurses and doctors amid an increase in the number of health providers. The shortage reflects a worldwide trend as professionals age and retire, a senior Dubai Health Authority official recently told Gulf News.

The Kerala ministry has set up a public sector recruitment facility to help put an end to problems many nurses face on approaching private sector agencies. There have been cases of some nurses from Kerala who were hired and forced into prostitution.

Prakash also held talks on the possible exchange of medical students.

Keralites constitute 60 per cent of the total Indian expatriate population of two million in the UAE. It was reported earlier that the UAE has a plan to open a consulate in Kochi, the commercial capital of Kerala.

Prakash told Gulf News that he was grateful for the huge support from Indian doctors in the UAE. He was speaking after the launch of a trust that will help provide treatment to patients in rural areas of Kerala state. The trust is in the name of Dubai-based Dr K.P. Hussain, managing director of Fathima Healthcare group.

The doctor announced that he is donating 28 dialysis machines to Kerala which will help provide dialysis to about 10,000 patients who can ill afford the twice-weekly procedure that is of critical importance.