NHS ‘unethical’ in recruiting nurses from short-staffed countries

Nurses in Port Harcourt, Nigeria. While overseas healthcare workers in the UK are invaluable the rise in recruitment from red-list countries (nations with their own pressing workforce challenges) is concerning, says NHS Providers’ policy director. Photograph: Akintunde Akinleye / Reuters/Reuters

The NHS has been accused of “unethical” behaviour after it emerged that it has been recruiting record numbers of nurses and midwives from countries which have serious staffing shortages.

Bringing in staff from “red-list” countries risked destabilising those nations’ healthcare systems and breaching government guidelines, said hospital employers and the Royal College of Nursing.