Yahoo News Easier language tests could be brought in for foreign nurses
Easier language tests could be brought in for foreign nurses after hospital managers said too many are being turned away for poor English.
Regulators are embarking on a “stocktake” of the standards following lobbying from senior managers and recruitment agencies, who want the pass rate to be reduced.
It comes amid widespread shortages of nurses, with a recent drop in the numbers coming to the UK from EU countries.
The Nursing and Midwifery Council, which regulates more than 680,000 nurses and midwives, is now “gathering data and evidence” about whether the standards should be changed. The matter is due to be discussed at a board meeting later this week.
Patients’ groups and the Royal College of Nursing (RCN) expressed alarm, warning that any drop in standards could jeopardise safety.
The watchdog has already recently relaxed its rules. Since last year, nurses and midwives from overseas have been able to take a set of language exams in two sittings, using the best scores from each, to achieve a pass.
Why is the NHS under so much pressure? |
Now senior managers and commercial recruitment agencies are calling for a further weakening of the rules, to lower the pass score from 7 to 6.5, on a nine-point system.
Joyce Robins, from Patient Concern, said: “The notion of dropping the standards in this way fills me with trepidation - it is really worrying.”
“Communication is such an important part of healthcare, and it is already often where things go wrong. I don’t think we can afford to take risks like this.”
Andrea Jenkyns, a Conservative member of the Commons health select committee, last night urged the regulator not to embark on such changes.
"It is absolutely imperative that we don't reduce language standards for nurses and midwives in the NHS,” she said, warning that healthcare required “clarity of communication and understanding.”
“Sometimes life or death decisions need to be made and I would be concerned about the potential impact on patient safety,” she said.
Janet Davies, chief executive of the RCN also expressed concern. "Clear communication is vital in nursing and the NMC must make sure the tests remain rigorous. We will not accept any quick fixes designed to make up for the shortage of nurses in the UK," she said.
“As we leave the EU, the Government needs to help to train the next generation of British nurses if it is to avoid the staffing crisis getting even worse."
Language tests for overseas nurses were introduced in 2007, but until last year, those who came to the UK from EU countries were exempt from them.
The NMC said no decision had been taken about any change in the rules
“Our foremost consideration must always be protection of patients and the public and we will be gathering data and evidence to inform our consideration of whether any variation in either direction is needed to the current standards,” the board paper states.
A petition calling for the pass rate to be reduced has been signed by more than 3,600 nurses.
The man behind it, Febin Cyriac, is the managing partner of a UK healthcare recruitment firm, which targets nurses from overseas. Mr Cyriac, who is also employed by a fast food delivery chain, makes no mention of his commercial interest in expanding recruitment from overseas, in the public petition.
NHS trust senior managers have called on the regulator to drop the pass rates.
Jackie Daniel, chief executive of University Hospitals of Morecambe Bay NHS Foundation trust, has written to the head of the NMC, calling for pass rates to be reduced.
Ms Daniel asked for the system to be reviewed, after scores of nurses recruited by the trust were rejected by regulators for poor English. Just two of 104 new staff recruited from overseas in 18 months were able to start work at her trust.
The senior manager said the NHS was too short staffed to afford to lose overseas nurses to countries such as the United States and Canada, which accep a lower, 6.5 pass rate.
“We need these applicants,” she said. "We are reaching a point in the road now where things are coming to a head in terms of workforce."
Last month a report by healthcare staffing agency HCL Workforce Solutions said the current language requirements were “unjustified”.
Across a sample of 14 NHS trusts, around 50 per cent of around 2,000 nurses it has recruited have either dropped out of the process or been removed since November 2014 because of failed tests, it said. The delays and repeat tests meant it was taking an average of a year between recruitment and deployment in the NHS, the report said.
The report’s authors told Nursing Times that until last year - when language tests were extended to EU countries - nurses from elsewhere in Europe were usually able to start work in the UK within two months.
An NMC spokesman said: “Patient safety is always our first priority and as such, the Code requires all nurses and midwives to have the necessary command of English in order to practise safely and effectively."
He said the regulator was aware of concerns about the current policy, and would gather evidence in the coming months but had not committed to changing the standard.
