What immigration really means to Britain
A picture of an NHS surgical team who come from around the European Union has been shared thousands of times online.
The photo, titled "We are Europe!", shows three scrub nurses from Spain, an Irish radiographer, a German consultant anaesthetist, a Greek urology specialist registrar and a British Pakistani consultant urologist.
Junaid Masood, who posted the picture while working at Homerton University Hospital in east London, said immigration is "the backbone" of the NHS.
The locum consultant urologist wrote: "Today we have been hard at work improving people's lives! This is what our friends from Europe do for the NHS."
http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/health-and-families/health-news/what-immigration-really-means-to-britain-a7106166.html
Nice picture, but a bit simplistic to say that this is 'What immigration really means to Britain' surely?
Not all immigrants fill worthwhile jobs. Not all immigrants have jobs. Some are in our prisons. Immigrants, like everyone else, come in all shapes, sizes and types.
In respect of the NHS several questions arise;
Why are we short of doctors and nurses?
Answer;
because the UK has been cutting training places so our own people can't get into the jobs; The Royal College of Nursing said;
there are 54,000 homegrown applicants a year seeking training places. However, in 2010-2011 there were only 20,092 nurse training commissions in the UK. In each of the next four years under the coalition there were fewer places, a reduction of 8,000 British nurses coming into the system.
Andy Burnham, the shadow health secretary, said: “Because there are not enough nurses coming out of training, hospitals are having to tour Europe looking for recruits.
https://www.theguardian.com/society/2015/apr/04/nhs-recruits-one-in-four-nurses-from-abroadI think the same is true for doctors. Instead of investing in training we are just recruiting overseas.
Guardian investigation finds that aggressive recruitment sees doctors from at least 27 countries hired in 32 of the 160 hospital trusts in England......Dr David Rosser, medical director of University hospitals Birmingham, one of England’s biggest trusts, said: “The NHS doesn’t have the number of doctors it needs. The shortage is real. We aren’t training enough doctors in this country, and so we are dependent on foreign-trained doctors. Doctors in more and more branches of medicine report shortages, especially in specialities such as A&E, where it’s tough work.”
https://www.theguardian.com/society/2015/jan/28/-sp-nhs-hires-3000-foreign-doctors-staff-shortageSo needing immigrants to work in the NHS is due to lack of investment in training our own doctors and nurses. Are these doctors as well trained as our home trained ones? Possibly not;
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/nhs/10772690/The-NHS-must-raise-the-bar-for-foreign-doctors.htmlA pretty picture, as I said, but the underlying reasons for our international NHS staff should also be communicated and considered. Haven't we had enough propoganda?
