The Philippines is one of the countries the UK recruits nurses from

The UK has been singled out in the past for relying on overseas nurses because of staffing shortages in the NHS.

But the claim came as the UK government announced record numbers of nurses and doctors were working in the health service.

The study said nurses in developing countries often had low salaries, high workloads and a high risk of experiencing violence at work - problems which had not been addressed.

There is still a long way to go and we need to continue to work hard to recruit more staff to the NHS Health minister John Hutton

These 'push' factors were compounded by 'pull' factors such as better salaries and career opportunities from countries like the UK.

These countries have failed to "keep their own" nurses in sufficient numbers, according to the study carried out by the World Health Organisation, the International Council of Nurses, and the UK's Royal College of Nursing.

It looked at countries including Australia, the Caribbean, Ghana, Irish Republic, Norway, Philippines, South Africa, United Kingdom and the USA.

Regulation

The report said the failure of governments to address the underlying causes of nursing shortages created "aggressive and sometimes exploitive" international recruitment.

It warned: "Recruiting nurses into a dysfunctional health system is at best a short-term solution, and has ethical implications."

The study calls for nurses' pay and conditions in developing countries to be improved.

It suggests many nurses would stay in their home countries if such changes were made.

It also suggests the movement of nurses between countries should be regulated, and that developing countries should be compensated by the recruiting country for the loss of nurses.

'Paying off'

The UK's Department of Health said over 17,000 nurses had joined the health service in the last year.

But doctors' leaders said the increase of 1,288 consultants and 497 GPs was short of the number needed to meet government targets.

In the 2000 NHS Plan, the government pledged to recruit 7,500 consultants and 2,000 GPs by 2004.

Health Minister John Hutton said: "These figures demonstrate that we are continuing to recruit more nurses and doctors year on year and more nursing and medical training places are coming on stream.

"However, there is still a long way to go and we need to continue to work hard to recruit more staff to the NHS."

Sarah Mullally, the Chief Nursing Officer, said: "The increase in numbers of NHS staff across all different groups and particularly the recent growth in the numbers of nurses is good news.

"This reflects the hard work of nurses who have been involved in job shops and other local recruitment initiatives.