THE EXODUS OF THE FILIPINO NURSES

Record numbers of nurses are leaving Britain to work abroad in search of better pay and affordable housing.

Fears are growing that many of the foreign recruits brought here to ease desperate Health Service staff shortages are among those quitting for other developed countries such as the U.S. and Australia.

There is evidence that Filipino nurses, who have been the target of big recruitment drives by NHS trusts and private care homes, are applying for jobs in America in the hope of making a better life.

The latest figures show a rise of almost 20 per cent in the number of foreign healthcare employers making checks on UK-based applicants, taking the inquiry rate to a ten-year high.

More than 6,000 checks were made in the year to March 2001, compared with 5,083 in the previous year, according to figures from the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC).In the United Kingdom.

In previous years the most popular overseas destinations for nurses have been Australia, New Zealand, the U.S. and Ireland.

The number of nurses moving abroad for work has risen steadily in the past four years. An estimated 40,000 foreign staff have been recruited in recent years by British hospitals. In Central London one in three nurses had trained abroad.

A spokesman for the NMC said a substantial exodus of foreign recruits to countries such as the U.S., France and Germany, which are also suffering nurse shortages, would be a headache for NHS hospitals.

'We have not seen it yet but if it happens it would be very worrying,' he added. 'Many trusts are spending time and resources on helping foreign recruits settle in, with six-month adaptation courses. That investment would be lost if the UK becomes a staging post for overseas nurses on their way to other countries.'

Its data did not show whether those migrating are Britons having a career break overseas or foreign recruits.

Other figures from the NMC show the biggest rise in nurses for ten years was recorded last year, with almost 12,000 extra registered to work in Britain.

The number on the register rose from 632,050 at the end of March 2001 to 644,025 at the end of last month, although this total does not represent the number of nurses in work.

The trends indicate two things. Either the Western World has not interest in health care related employment due to various governmental regulations or the dearth of jobs in the Philippines force nurses to move out of their Motherland.

Personally, it is a welcome trend. Supply and demand is a  true tenet of the Capitalistic Society.