Staff shortages and pay disputes have led to strikes by British health workers. PA
Staff shortages and pay disputes have led to strikes by British health workers. PA
Staff shortages and pay disputes have led to strikes by British health workers. PA
Staff shortages and pay disputes have led to strikes by British health workers. PA

India dominates visas handed to UK doctors and nurses amid NHS reliance on foreign workers


Tariq Tahir
  • English
  • Arabic

Doctors, nurses and care home staff accounted for half the visas issued to skilled workers coming to the UK over the past year, a report shows.

The study revealed the UK’s reliance on overseas health workers, which it says is at an unprecedented level in the post-Second World War era, with recruits from India making up the largest single group.

In the year ending March 2023, almost 100,000 skilled workers received visas to work in health and care jobs in the UK, a new analysis published by the Migration Observatory at the University of Oxford shows.

The study comes as it emerged a quarter of Australian medics are made up of NHS-trained professionals heading the other way.

Health workers coming to the UK are needed to fill 124,000 full-time job vacancies in the NHS in England, where there was a vacancy rate of 8.9 per cent as of the last quarter of 2022.

In the care sector, there was a vacancy rate of around five per cent last summer, although that has dropped this year, says the report, which was commissioned by work and employment expert group ReWAGE.

Dr Madeleine Sumption, director of the Migration Observatory, said: “Health and care employers have benefited a lot from international recruitment, which has allowed the NHS to increase its workforce faster than if it was relying only on people completing domestic training.”

Broken down by nationality, a fifth of doctors, 46 per cent of nurses and 33 per cent of care workers sponsored for work visas came from India last year, the largest single group.

In 2022, 99 per cent of care workers sponsored for work visas in the UK were from non-EU countries. The top countries after India were Zimbabwe, Nigeria and the Philippines.

“The health and care sector has never admitted such large numbers of work visa holders as in the immediate post-pandemic period under the post-Brexit immigration system,” says the report.

“Health sector visa grants were also considerably lower during historical international recruitment periods in the 1950s to 1990s.”

Nurses striking over staff shortages in the UK. PA
Nurses striking over staff shortages in the UK. PA

But, the report warns, if heavy reliance on international recruitment continues to persist, the UK could become more vulnerable to changes in employers’ ability to recruit from abroad.

For example, Britain could be vulnerable to competition from other countries such as the US, where higher salaries are offered.

The problem of staff shortages and the strain it takes on NHS employees, as well as pay, has led to a series of strikes by doctors and nurses.

This comes as a report from the King’s Fund think tank found the NHS service is struggling to recruit locally trained staff amid “strikingly” low levels of clinical staff and nurses who had trained with the NHS.

Meanwhile data showed the percentages of British-trained healthcare workers employed overseas in New Zealand and Australia to be in the double digits.

UK-trained nurses accounted for one in five foreign-trained nurses in New Zealand and one in four in Australia.

By contrast, 1.1 per cent of foreign-trained nurses in the UK came from Australia and 0.3 per cent from New Zealand.

Global state-owned investor ranking by size

1.

United States

2.

China

3.

UAE

4.

Japan

5

Norway

6.

Canada

7.

Singapore

8.

Australia

9.

Saudi Arabia

10.

South Korea

ABU DHABI ORDER OF PLAY

Starting at 10am:

Daria Kasatkina v Qiang Wang

Veronika Kudermetova v Annet Kontaveit (10)

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Donna Vekic (16) v Bernarda Pera 

Ekaterina Alexandrova v Zarina Diyas

Results

7pm: Wathba Stallions Cup – Handicap (PA) Dh70,000 (Dirt) 1,600m; Winner: RB Kings Bay, Abdul Aziz Al Balushi (jockey), Helal Al Alawi (trainer)

7.30pm: Maiden (PA) Dh 70,000 (D) 1,600m; Winner: AF Ensito, Fernando Jara, Mohamed Daggash

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10pm: Al Ain Cup – Prestige (PA) Dh100,000 (D) 2,000m; Winner: Harrab, Bernardo Pinheiro, Majed Al Jahouri

Generational responses to the pandemic

Devesh Mamtani from Century Financial believes the cash-hoarding tendency of each generation is influenced by what stage of the employment cycle they are in. He offers the following insights:

Baby boomers (those born before 1964): Owing to market uncertainty and the need to survive amid competition, many in this generation are looking for options to hoard more cash and increase their overall savings/investments towards risk-free assets.

Generation X (born between 1965 and 1980): Gen X is currently in its prime working years. With their personal and family finances taking a hit, Generation X is looking at multiple options, including taking out short-term loan facilities with competitive interest rates instead of dipping into their savings account.

Millennials (born between 1981 and 1996): This market situation is giving them a valuable lesson about investing early. Many millennials who had previously not saved or invested are looking to start doing so now.

Sole survivors
  • Cecelia Crocker was on board Northwest Airlines Flight 255 in 1987 when it crashed in Detroit, killing 154 people, including her parents and brother. The plane had hit a light pole on take off
  • George Lamson Jr, from Minnesota, was on a Galaxy Airlines flight that crashed in Reno in 1985, killing 68 people. His entire seat was launched out of the plane
  • Bahia Bakari, then 12, survived when a Yemenia Airways flight crashed near the Comoros in 2009, killing 152. She was found clinging to wreckage after floating in the ocean for 13 hours.
  • Jim Polehinke was the co-pilot and sole survivor of a 2006 Comair flight that crashed in Lexington, Kentucky, killing 49.
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Yahya Al Ghassani's bio

Date of birth: April 18, 1998

Playing position: Winger

Clubs: 2015-2017 – Al Ahli Dubai; March-June 2018 – Paris FC; August – Al Wahda

ELIO

Starring: Yonas Kibreab, Zoe Saldana, Brad Garrett

Directors: Madeline Sharafian, Domee Shi, Adrian Molina

Rating: 4/5

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The specs
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  • Power: 640hp
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SPECS
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MATCH INFO

Fixture: Ukraine v Portugal, Monday, 10.45pm (UAE)

TV: BeIN Sports

Dubai Rugby Sevens, December 5 -7

World Sevens Series Pools

A – Fiji, France, Argentina, Japan

B – United States, Australia, Scotland, Ireland

C – New Zealand, Samoa, Canada, Wales

D – South Africa, England, Spain, Kenya

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ONCE UPON A TIME IN GAZA

Starring: Nader Abd Alhay, Majd Eid, Ramzi Maqdisi

Directors: Tarzan and Arab Nasser

Rating: 4.5/5

Company Profile

Name: Thndr
Started: 2019
Co-founders: Ahmad Hammouda and Seif Amr
Sector: FinTech
Headquarters: Egypt
UAE base: Hub71, Abu Dhabi
Current number of staff: More than 150
Funds raised: $22 million

UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
Brief scores:

Toss: Sindhis, elected to field first

Kerala Knights 103-7 (10 ov)

Parnell 59 not out; Tambe 5-15

Sindhis 104-1 (7.4 ov)

Watson 50 not out, Devcich 49

A new relationship with the old country

Treaty of Friendship between the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and the United Arab Emirates

The United kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and the United Arab Emirates; Considering that the United Arab Emirates has assumed full responsibility as a sovereign and independent State; Determined that the long-standing and traditional relations of close friendship and cooperation between their peoples shall continue; Desiring to give expression to this intention in the form of a Treaty Friendship; Have agreed as follows:

ARTICLE 1 The relations between the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and the United Arab Emirates shall be governed by a spirit of close friendship. In recognition of this, the Contracting Parties, conscious of their common interest in the peace and stability of the region, shall: (a) consult together on matters of mutual concern in time of need; (b) settle all their disputes by peaceful means in conformity with the provisions of the Charter of the United Nations.

ARTICLE 2 The Contracting Parties shall encourage education, scientific and cultural cooperation between the two States in accordance with arrangements to be agreed. Such arrangements shall cover among other things: (a) the promotion of mutual understanding of their respective cultures, civilisations and languages, the promotion of contacts among professional bodies, universities and cultural institutions; (c) the encouragement of technical, scientific and cultural exchanges.

ARTICLE 3 The Contracting Parties shall maintain the close relationship already existing between them in the field of trade and commerce. Representatives of the Contracting Parties shall meet from time to time to consider means by which such relations can be further developed and strengthened, including the possibility of concluding treaties or agreements on matters of mutual concern.

ARTICLE 4 This Treaty shall enter into force on today’s date and shall remain in force for a period of ten years. Unless twelve months before the expiry of the said period of ten years either Contracting Party shall have given notice to the other of its intention to terminate the Treaty, this Treaty shall remain in force thereafter until the expiry of twelve months from the date on which notice of such intention is given.

IN WITNESS WHEREOF the undersigned have signed this Treaty.

DONE in duplicate at Dubai the second day of December 1971AD, corresponding to the fifteenth day of Shawwal 1391H, in the English and Arabic languages, both texts being equally authoritative.

Signed

Geoffrey Arthur  Sheikh Zayed

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Engine: 2.7-litre 4-cylinder Turbomax
Power: 310hp
Torque: 583Nm
Transmission: 8-speed automatic
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Updated: June 27, 2023, 12:50 PM`