When HMT Empire Windrush arrived on the shores of Tilbury Docks in 1948, over a thousand migrants, mostly of Caribbean descent, answered the call from a government and an NHS unable to fill posts in the aftermath of World War 2.
Today, there are well over 200 nationalities working in the NHS, with one in four of the entire workforce coming from overseas. When you include those who came as migrants but have since acquired British citizenship, the figure is higher still. Migration is part of the very DNA of our health service and social care services.
Maybe so, but we have to also face the fact that the modern influx of black and brown faces is a very, very different beast to that long-ago migration.
No longer are we importing former colonial subjects, inculcated with the 'British way of doing things', able to speak clear English and with a work ethic that made them valuable. Things their descendents sadly often appear not to have inherited.
No, the modern influx is often of those with little to no work ethic at all, from cultures that hate us or our freedoms, and who are little more than fifth columnists.
I have had the privilege of working with some amazing nurses during my career — including those who have trained all over the world. What unites nursing staff, whether British born or from across the globe, is care of the patient and a commitment to public service.
Maybe ask us 'customers' if we agree, eh?
As Chief Nurse at King’s College Hospital, one of the largest hospital trusts in London, I saw selflessness and bravery every day.
In truth, our health and care services wouldn’t have survived the pandemic without our international colleagues.
Strange how no-one feels the same for the farmers, power station workers, highway maintenance men and shop workers, who surely are equally as deserving and actually worked to keep the nation running, the lights on and food on the shelves, while the NHS was manning empty hospitals, a fact even BBC Verify knows they can't challenge.
For me, two things are true at the same time. We must welcome, treasure and respect our migrant nursing staff. We also need our government to recognise the value of nursing by investing to make it a more attractive career for young people from the UK.
We must, must we? No.
Just like anything else, nursing staff are a resource. If we have a home-grown resource that our own taxpayer money has funded, then those should be employed first, if nothing else but to justify the cost to the taxpayer and get the benefit.
ReplyDeleteBut it seems the NHS prioritise foreign workers over UK nationals, if reports are to be believed. How can that be? Given that we fund the nursing degrees up to the tune of £5000 a years, surely it behooves the NHS to capitalise on that taxpayer investment by using the resource we created?
https://www.gov.uk/government/news/nursing-students-to-receive-5-000-payment-a-year
Migration shouldn't be a part of the DNA of the NHS. I don't recall it being fundamental to its foundation, it's not wanted. I want to be treated by my own ethnicity not some foreigner who is essentially depriving one of our own a job.
ReplyDeleteFriends of my granddaughter, some whose parents were nurses, are reluctant to follow in their footsteps because of the necessity to have a nursing degree. My late wife was a nurse, spending 3 years in a teaching hospital for her ARM qualification, attended several course during her career, and eventually specialising in Cardiology. Then one day she was told she had to have a nursing degree to continue doing the job she had done for 15 years. The study was done in her own time, between hospital shifts, and family life, and when she was awarded her degree, was not given a pay rise or increment for this paper qualification, but the hospital management was gracious enough to allow her to continue doing what she had been doing. She never understood why this requirement was made, and it was never really explained. The requirement to have degrees to follow a profession means that many suitable candidates are out off applying (look at the mess made of Police recruits having to have a degree in Policing - that put off so many people leaving the military, who would have experience of life, discipline, and common sense, but no degree, a bit like me, who served over 20 years in a County force after retiring from the Army). If nursing recruiting falls, the NHS has to get them from somewhere, hence the massive influx from abroad. Actions have consequences, and it may be that politicians never really.looked at the big picture when making that decision, but then when do they ever?
ReplyDeletePenseivat