New policy puts patients at risk

London: Ministers have been accused of risking patient health in favour of a "crude" immigration policy after government documents revealed that almost half of the nurses from abroad now working in the National Health Service (NHS) will be forced to leave Britain under new plans.

Home Secretary Theresa May has announced that migrants from outside the European Union earning less than £35,000 (Dh203,892) will not be allowed to settle in the UK. The pay threshold, which will see people beginning to be removed in 2016, is the first time that a British government has imposed an economic test on the right to settlement in the UK and is designed to break the link between working and settling in the country.

However, a government impact assessment reveals the change will cut the number of NHS nurses by "hundreds or low thousands" and cost the economy up to £433 million over the next 10 years as economically active people leave, a figure disputed by the UK Border Agency. The impact assessment says: "We estimate 48 per cent of migrant nurses, 37 per cent of primary school teachers, 35 per cent of IT/software professionals and 9 per cent of secondary teachers would be excluded." The assessment claims that the loss of the migrant nurses will not have a "significant impact" on the ability of the 698,000-strong nurse workforce in the country to carry out their duties.

Disincentive

But Gail Adams, head of nursing at the union Unison, said the losses would come on top of a current shortage of trained nursing staff and at a time when the relatively elderly workforce in nursing was moving into retirement.

The pay threshold will apply to people wanting to remain permanently after more than five years working in the UK, but it is expected to provide a disincentive to any migrant nurses whose services the country need in the future.

— Guardian News & Media Ltd