Over 100 Indian healthcare professionals to be appointed in UK: Report

London More than 100 health professionals from India will be recruited by Britain’s National Health Service (NHS) Trust, which runs York and Scarborough hospitals, to address the shortage of health workers. The York and Scarborough Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust has made an offer to 107 medical staff, including 97 registered nurses and 10 allied health professionals, following a recruitment trip to Kerala, according to The Scarborough News.

Members of the Trust’s Board of Directors were told, the Trust has started the process of bidding for NHS England funding to support international nursing recruitment between April-November 2023 and has indicated a target of 90 international nurses, Which could cost £450,000.

The trust said that the process of applications is going on.

The trust that runs the New York and Scarborough hospitals had an 11.5 percent vacancy rate for health care support workers in the adult inpatient areas and a 14.5 percent vacancy rate for registered nurses in the adult inpatient areas in January of this year.

The board was told that after international nurses joined the trust, the vacancy rate on adult inpatient wards fell to 7.6 per cent.

Significantly, on December 15, 2022, nurses of the state-funded NHS launched their first nationwide strike in the union’s 106-year history amid rising costs and demands for pay hikes in the country.

Around one lakh nurses went on strike in 76 hospitals and health centres.

Last month, Britain’s largest nursing union threatened to quit.

According to The Guardian, figures from the Royal College of Nursing show that around 43,000 nurses have left their jobs early in their careers across the UK, and around 47,000 nursing positions are vacant in the country.