Trapped And Destitute How Foreign Nurses Uk Dreams Turned Sour Nursing

At her home in the Philippines, she saw Facebook-like ads on the site today that promised “an attractive relocation package” and invited her to “Start your UK dream!” Bosses of an NHS trust in the Southeast had even flown to the town near her village to interview the candidates in person, desperate to fill vacancies in their booths. With eight years of experience, it fit perfectly. Hours after her interview, she was offered a job. “I was very excited,” said the 34-year-old, whose name has been changed. “My friends in other faiths had nice jobs and they enjoyed it.” In the beginning, things went smoothly: the job was difficult, but she saved enough money to send a small amount to her elderly parents, who had re-mortgaged their land to attend a nursing college. Then, in April 2020, everything changed. While working 12-hour shifts in an intensive care unit at the height of the first lockdown, with no full PPE or regular tests, Sanchez caught Covid. The virus left her tired and having difficulty breathing, but mentally it was even worse. The UK is hiring a record number of nurses from abroad as NHS staff leave. Photo: Joel Goodman / LNP She returned to the ward, but found herself anxious and panicked at a point signed by her doctor. “I kept crying and crying. “I was horrified by the number of deaths,” he said. “Some of the nurses who died in the NHS were my friends.” In September 2020, a little less than a year after her arrival, Sanchez made the difficult decision to go home. But when she reported the news to her manager, she was told it was not that simple. He had a two-year contract. Leaving early would cost her 000 6,000. Sanchez is one of thousands of international nurses subject to repayment clauses in the UK. To help meet a critical national staff shortage, with up to 400 NHS workers leaving each week, the UK is hiring a historically high number of nurses from abroad. In the 12 months to the end of September 2021, there were more than 7,000 arrivals from India and 5,000 from the Philippines, according to data from the Nursing and Obstetrics Council – part of the more than 125,000 international nurses currently registered. There are plans to increase that number: the government has pledged to add 50,000 nurses to the NHS alone by 2025, with thousands more in need of social care. In addition to the examinations and approvals needed to work in the UK, nurses abroad are ready to go. It costs employers around £ 10,000 to 12 12,000 per pre-hiring – but it saves them up to 18 18,500 in agency fees for the first year alone. In some cases, trusts can be paid up to 7. 7,000 by NHS England for each overseas nurse they hire. However, unlike their UK counterparts, those who leave before their contract expires may find themselves paying a heavy bill, according to an Observer survey – even in cases of bullying, discrimination, ill health and family emergencies. Repayment clauses – which usually last three years and can cover everything from flights and visas to initial residence and training – are widespread in the NHS and in the private sector, although the terms vary and are not used by all employers. “This does not encourage nurses to come and help with our vacancies,” said Francis Fernando, a London-based community leader in the Philippines. Photo: Antonio Olmos / The Observer The University Hospital Southampton NHS Foundation Trust, cited as an example of good practice in an NHS employer recruitment toolkit, charges Filipino nurses £ 5,000 if they wish to leave the first year, reducing it to 2.5 2,500 after one year. The trust says hiring a nurse from abroad costs about .000 11,000, “which may include language, theory and practice exams, flights, work visas and accommodation”, and uses two-year repayment clauses to “protect this investment”. . Sharp BH Global, a service hired in the Philippines for the Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust, uses “conventional measures” to ensure that “nurses keep their commitment” as part of the Nurses Ready to Roll program. “This contractually binding agreement requires them to abide by full employment contracts, otherwise they face financial penalties,” the website said. In the private sector, fees are often higher. A care provider with more than 10 homes in the UK charges 7. 7,000 to migrant workers if they try to leave their role within a year, dropping to 50% of the “costs” – 3.5 3,500 – if they leave at any time three years ago. In a case identified by Unison, a nurse hired by Zimbabwe in August 2020 to help respond to Covid-19 says she tried to leave after her employer refused to increase her annual salary from .000 15,000 to .000 16,000. Or after its trial period. as agreed. She had been offered a job on an NHS trust, but when she asked for a report, her employer refused and told her she would have to pay 10. 10,850. In the worst case, employees can be laid off for five years and face charges of up to 14 14,000 if they try to leave early. In Sanchez’s case, he had signed an agreement before it started, but the amount – equal to about three months’ pay – had never been clarified. Under pressure from a union and a charity, confidence eventually plummeted – but not before he said he could not work in the UK again if he did not pay. “To me, it’s not fair,” he said. “We work hard and I was sick. “I do not think they should have asked for repayment after a year, especially when I got sick while working in the trust.” Although the clauses are not always enforced, they act as a strong deterrent, said Susan Cueva of Kanlungan, a charity for Filipino immigrants. Some workers stay in the workplace despite the workplace or other problems, fearing that if they leave they will not be able to pay. He likened them to a form of slavery. “You can not leave if you do not pay, and if you leave you must pay,” he said. “Lawyers would argue that they signed the contracts and are therefore bound by them. They will say, “They have a choice, they do not need to sign it,” he said. However, in some cases, employees are presented with different contracts than they sign when they arrive, or the contract is only shown to them when they arrive in the UK. Others may not fully understand the consequences of repayment terms because they plan to stay in the UK forever – or have already spent thousands of savings to come first. “To return would mean that they would lose all the money they spent in the end trying to find work. “So they are taking their chances,” he said. Ads targeting international candidates on Facebook give a sunny picture of life in the UK. But on YouTube, dozens of nurses are talking about the harshest reality – from the challenges of bringing family members to live with them to visa problems and the cost of living. There is a subspecies video dedicated to repayment terms. “If you have this clause, start saving now in case you need to leave,” advises a vlogger. “It’s your logic. It’s your life. “It’s your mental health,” says another. “What if you die there before completing your three-year contract? If you are not happy with your job? ” she moves away. “I knew I had to leave.” A YouTuber, Becca Agyemang, a mother of three from Accra, Ghana, started working as an NHS nurse in the southeast in September 2020. She had paid about 40,000 cents (about 000 4,000) for her studies. The costs of transporting her to the United Kingdom – her conversion exams, her visa and her flights – were paid for by the trust. After a year, she wanted to leave her role not because of bullying or emergency, but because she was fighting without a support network around her. She received an offer from another NHS trust in London, but because she left before the end of her three-year term, she was told she would have to pay the recruitment fee of around 3.5 3,500. “It was okay because I had saved a little at the time,” he said, “but it was not easy. They took it from my salary. So you just have to tidy yourself up, rent, stay. “ But her condition is not as bad as that of some of her friends. “One of my friends was in a nursing home. He paid over λί 5,000 after working for more than three years. “They even made her pay for everything,” he said. Another nurse from the Philippines said she quit her job in a care home after being “injured” while working there at the height of the pandemic, months after arriving in the UK. “I just did not expect it to be so difficult physically and mentally,” said the nurse, who now works for the NHS in the Southwest. She had estimated the cost of her training and relocation at around 000 3,000. But the caregiver said he owed 6. 6,700. “I really wanted to move on to a better lifestyle, even though it was very, very expensive,” he said. “We gave them all our savings to get away.” Trade unions, charities and lawyers – as well as associations representing nurses from the Philippines and India in the United Kingdom – are calling for an urgent review of the terms of the convention, which they say is discriminatory. The British Association of Nurses of India believes that the issue has been on the radar for so long, because immigrant nurses – especially those from India – are unlikely to complain. “For them, this is better than being in India. “They do not realize that they are being treated unfairly,” said a spokesman. Francis Fernando, the leader of community nurses in London, said nurses were already paying “exorbitant fees” for their visa applications at a time when the NHS was desperate for nurses, in addition to the threat of potential repayment costs. “This does not encourage nurses to come here to help with our vacancies,” he said. “We are shooting ourselves in the foot. Must…