South Africa July 2006 |
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| Plug in the drain of nurses from SA, (Daily News, 2006-07-05):-The exodus of nurses from South Africa seeking more lucrative jobs in the United Kingdom may soon come to a halt. There has been mixed reaction from health care professionals and their unions to Monday's announcement that the UK will no longer allow certain nurses to work in the English Health Service. The Daily Mail reported that the move comes amid concerns from British-trained nurses, some of whom have resorted to working in fast food outlets as there is an apparent lack of vacancies in the Health Service. The Royal College of Nursing (RCN) was however quoted as saying that the British government was shooting itself in the foot by banning foreign workers, and predicted a massive staff shortfall in the next five years as established staff retire. The announcement has drawn strong criticism from the RCN and many South African trained nurses who have worked in the UK, while Health and Other Service Personnel Trade Union of South Africa (Hospersa) has tentatively embraced the move. The subject of vigorous political debate, the massive exodus of skilled health care workers has for years remained a thorn in the flesh of government who late last year welcomed an undertaking from the UK National Health Service to stop actively recruiting local staff. Statistics however indicate that local nurses continued to jet off to the UK after being welcomed with open arms by private hospitals and recruitment agencies, which were not included in the agreement. According to the new foreign guidelines, the regulations will apply to nurses who earn about £19 000 (R247 000) a year and are staff nurses or newly qualified. Hospersa is seeing the announcement as a bitter-sweet solution to South Africa's skills shortage. Dev Naidoo of the national intervention team said although the union welcomed the move, there needed to be further dialogue with the government on making South Africa an attractive option to nurses. "We don't want to lose skills from the country but the effect of the pound has been crucial. We welcome this latest move as we believe locally trained staff should give back to society, but at the same time employment conditions need to improve drastically in South Africa. "From the staff's perspective there may be doors closing in London, but nurses are still being welcomed in other countries such as Saudi Arabia, New Zealand and Canada. This needs to be a wake up call for government to address the scarce skills allowance and rural allowance issues that have not been addressed," said Naidoo. Nurses who have worked in foreign countries have alternatively slammed and accepted the announcement, but collectively said the new regulations would not hold major financial repercussions for health care workers. Theatre trained sister, Soogra Sheriff, spent two years in the British private health care sector and said the regulations would mainly prevent locals from gaining valuable experience overseas. She said the high cost of living equated to staff earning marginally more than their South African counterparts. Her sentiments were partly shared by Leane Padayachee, who spent two years in Saudi Arabia. Although money first attracted her to the work, the vastly different culture brought her back home. Intensive Care Unit trained nurse, Gayle Naidoo, said she would not want to return to the UK public health service despite the new regulations. Naidoo said the cost of living quickly eroded any savings while there was a general lack of respect shown towards staff. | |
South African Migration Project (SAMP) - Queen's University - http://www.queensu.ca/samp |