Vow to end NHS reliance on foreign staff criticised

HEALTHCARE leaders have warned that the NHS will not survive without the contribution of overseas staff, following reports a life peer was vowing to end the

health service’s reliance on foreign workers.

Baroness Dido Harding has apparently pledged to make the NHS less reliant on non-UK workers, if she becomes head of the NHS. Harding, the former head of the NHS’s Test and Trace programme, formally applied to succeed Simon Stevens as the head of NHS England last week.

The Times claimed Harding would challenge the “prevailing orthodoxy” in government that staff are better sourced from abroad. Around 14 per cent of the NHS workforce are non-UK nationals, according to the House of Commons Library.

Reacting to the claims, British Medical Association (BMA) council chair Dr Chaand Nagpaul said the NHS would not survive without the contribution of overseas health workers. Non-UK staff played a “critical role” in supporting the health service, he argued.

“Their contribution to saving lives and caring for patients during the pandemic has been invaluable,” he said.

Professor (Dr) Kailash Chand, a former deputy chair of the BMA, echoed his remarks. “The NHS is so reliant on immigrant workforce that it would not survive without the contribution of overseas healthcare workers,” he told Eastern Eye. “We should be celebrating their contribution and thanking them for the difference they have made to the NHS. A NHS without a non-UK workforce input is, to say the least, unrealistic.”

Dr Chand argued Harding’s comments “demeaned the contributions (of overseas medics)”. “It is a slap on our faces and those who’ve sacrificed their lives protecting the public serving the NHS since its inception,” the Manchester-based doctor said. “Foreign vs indigenous is a discriminatory and devious way to describe cultural relationships and does not bode well for multicultural global Britain.”

Both doctors noted the severe staffing shortages within the NHS. The Kings Fund said hospitals, mental health services and community providers reported a shortage of nearly 84,000 full-time equivalent (FTE) staff, affecting key groups such as nurses, midwives and health visitors.

Dr Nagpaul said: “With serious staffing shortages within the NHS, we must be doing all we can to attract and retain hardworking doctors and healthcare workers, both from overseas and within the UK, as that is what is needed to care for patients amid an enormous backlog of care.”

Dr Chand added: “Instead of demonising foreign staff, (Baroness Harding) should ask the government to improve the pay and conditions of NHS workers so home grown medics don’t emigrate to places like Canada and Australia.”

Dr Ramesh Mehta, president of the British Association of Physicians of Indian Origin (BAPIO), agreed the NHS would struggle without the contribution of foreign doctors. Although he noted Harding was “ethically right” in acknowledging India needs more doctors than the UK, he said: “Since Dido is applying for the top NHS job, it may be her political posturing.”

Dr Mehta warned the Tory peer should resist from “making rash statements”. “She has certainly antagonised foreign-trained doctors in the NHS who provide sterling service and have stood by the NHS during the Covid disaster, even risking their lives,” he told Eastern Eye.

BAPIO’s national chairman, Dr JS Bamrah, said it was “regrettable” Harding had “failed to recognise our contributions, making many of us feel that we are an unwanted and undesirable part of the NHS workforce”.

“She would have done better to say she would do her utmost, if selected to be the boss of the NHS, to increase the uptake in UK medical schools and provide nurse bursaries to induce more nurses to join the NHS, so that the 100,000 vacancies in jobs can be filled,” he told Eastern Eye.

Others have also criticised Harding’s remarks. In response to the reports, Greater Manchester mayor Andy Burnham said the NHS “was built on internationalism, not xenophobia”, while Labour’s Angela Rayner called the vow “misguided and close to  impossible”.

“It is also deeply offensive to all the NHS staff who have risked their lives during the pandemic,” said Rayner, the deputy leader of the opposition.

Simons was confirmed to be standing down as the NHS chief executive in April. Other reported frontrunners for the role include NHS England’s chief operating officer, Amanda Pritchard.