Nursing

Viscount Bridgeman Excerpts

Monday 14th May 2018 Lords Chamber

[Viscount Bridgeman (Con)]

My Lords, the House will be very grateful to the noble Lord, Lord Crisp, for instituting this debate and I crave the indulgence of noble Lords for speaking in the gap. I must also ask for a further indulgence because this speech is not totally global in character. I speak as the former chairman of a central London independent hospital. Our experience, like that of many other hospitals and indeed of many patients, is of the excellence of nurses coming particularly from Australia, New Zealand and Canada. They have many attributes. On the whole they are very well trained in the British tradition. They have a reputation for being particularly good with patients, and of course they have the language. The attraction for them of coming to the UK is to work hard and save up for touring Europe, and certainly it has been the experience at our hospital that the limited stay is worth it for the service these nurses give during that period.

There is a distinct possibility that following Brexit, the number of nurses from the European Union will fall, and this has been highlighted in a rather depressing King’s Fund report published last October which many noble Lords will have received. This will obviously lead to an increase in demand for well-trained nurses from elsewhere. Incidentally, from that list of Australia, New Zealand and Canada, I deliberately omitted South Africa, because nurses are urgently needed in southern Africa, as highlighted by my noble friend Lord Ribeiro and the noble Baroness, Lady Watkins of Tavistock.

Currently, the expenses for nurses coming from outside the European Union and taking up work in this country are very considerable. We cannot do anything about geography but the fact is that nurses coming from the European Union at the moment have virtually no expenses, except possibly those of getting their English up to speed. I highlight the work done by my noble friend Lord Howe three years ago in getting the European Union to correct that anomaly. I ask Her Majesty’s Government, when they are formulating immigration policy following Brexit, to pay particular attention to minimising costly red tape and encouraging the valuable source of nursing excellence for the betterment of healthcare in this country.