Foreign nurse rules putting lives at risk, say Shropshire hospital bosses
Health bosses at the trust that controls Shropshire's two main hospitals have written to the Home Secretary about immigration rules which they say are preventing them from getting enough nurses on wards in time for winter.
The heads of 10 leading trusts, including the Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital Trust, have written to Theresa May to say patients are being put at risk.
They argue operations might be cancelled unless nursing is listed as an occupation with official shortages.
Sarah Bloomfield, director of nursing and quality at Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital NHS Trust,which operates Royal Shrewsbury Hospital and Telford's Princess Royal Hospital, said: "We absolutely understand that there must be careful management of all immigration issues and that the Home Office needs to carefully consider applications such as ours for certificates of sponsorship for 68 registered nurses from the Philippines to work at our hospitals.
"It is important that we are able to recruit more permanent nurses to reduce the need for agency staff and to ensure continuity of care and support for our ward teams, which in turn means that our patients receive the best quality of care possible.
"Whilst we are actively recruiting from the UK we, like many other trusts across the country, also need to look overseas to recruit as there is a shortage of registered nurses in the UK.
"We have signed the letter to the Home Secretary because of the need of the National Health Service, in times of financial difficulties, to have a permanent workforce which reduces our reliance on agency nurses.
"We're grateful to the Home Office for approving certificates for an initial 21 nurses from the Philippines, who we expect to arrive at our hospitals in the next couple of months, and we also expect to shortly hear about our second application for a further 30 nurses."
Telford MP Lucy Allan said: "In the interim it makes sense to put nurses on the Shortage Occupation List so that they can come from overseas to fill the gaps."
