New visa rules would put NHS at risk, warn nurses

To care for patients, become part of our communities and pay tax. It is pandering of the worst kind, ignorant of the impact on valued migrant staff and their families, but also the patients who need safely staffed services. Yes, ministers need to grow the domestic workforce, but the UK must also be a welcoming, secure place for international nurses.

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More than 800 NHS workers also criticised the plan yesterday as “harmful, divisive and xenophobic” and warned that the health service would “crumble” without them.

The plans have caused concern in key public services - including the NHS, social care and prisons - which rely heavily on overseas workers. About one in five NHS staff in England are not British, according to official figures.

In a letter coordinated by the human rights groups Praxis and Medact, the 800-plus medics said the “already strained NHS would crumble under the pressure” of these proposals, potentially triggering a staff exodus and discouraging overseas medics from working in the UK.