Agencies travel abroad to recruit nurses to work in Britain

The head of Kenya's nursing union told the BBC it was the most experienced nurses who were leaving.

In the UK, nursing leaders called for a code of conduct for recruitment agencies to be extended to cover the private sector, as well as the NHS, to end the practice.

But the government said it could only encourage independent agencies to comply with the code.

We are not in a position to direct the independent sector Sarah Mullally, Chief Nursing Officer

Evelyn Mutio, general secretary of the National Nurses Association told Radio 4's Today programme: "The UK is poaching our nurses through agents.

"The agents are here and they are opening up offices. They say 'If you want to get a job in Britain, come here'."

Ms Mutio said Kenyan nurses were getting jobs in nursing and residential homes and hospitals.

She said she did not think the voluntary code restricting recruitment in Africa was working.

"It may be that the government has said so, but it has not reached the agencies here."

'Back-door' recruitment

Beverley Malone, general secretary of the UK's Royal College of Nursing, said: "The independent agencies are not covered under the code.

"It's so important that the government do all that it can to extend that code to cover independent agencies."

She said the RCN would support nurses who decided themselves to come and work in the UK.

But she added: "When agencies recruit from the banned countries, it means that people in these countries are not getting the healthcare that they need."

Ms Malone said although nurses were recruited from these countries into the private sector, they often moved into the NHS because it has better working conditions.

She said this "back-door" employment meant the NHS was indirectly recruiting from banned countries.

"Out of top 20 countries that the UK recruits from, 12 of them are on the banned list."

Removal

The UK Chief Nursing Officer Sarah Mullally said the code was working in the NHS.

But she added: "At the moment, we are not in a position to direct the independent sector to adopt our code of practice.

"We are encouraging them, but what we have done alongside the code of practice is put together a register of agencies which are willing to sign up to the code.

"It is those agencies that the NHS will do business with.

"If agencies are on that list, and are not living up to the code of practice, then we can remove them from the list."

Ms Mullally said the UK government was also working with developing countries to help them retain their nursing workforce.

Dr Evan Harris MP, Liberal Democrat health spokesman, said: "We cannot simply blame private companies. If it is legal and there is demand for nurses, they will do it.

"It is the government's responsibility to stop unethical recruitment."

He added: "Poaching nurses does not even offer a long term solution.