New Immigration Rules 'Will Cause NHS Chaos'

David Cameron has hit back at nursing leaders saying new immigration rules will not lead to chaos in the NHS.

The Royal College of Nursing (RCN) has claimed thousands of foreign-born nurses could be forced to leave the UK under changes which mean from next year, migrants from outside the European Economic Area (EEA) must be earning £35,000 or more to stay in the UK after six years.

The union said nearly 3,365 nurses currently working in the UK, recruited at a cost of over £20m, will potentially be affected.

It warned the new measures will intensify the severe shortage of nurses in the UK and leave hospitals with nothing to show for the millions of pounds spent on recruiting them.

It added that if international recruitment stays the same as it is now, by 2020 the number of nurses affected by the threshold will be 6,620, employed at a cost of £39.7m.

The RCN is calling on the Government to reconsider the £35,000 salary threshold, add nurses to the list of occupations there is a shortage of, and to increase the number of UK nurse training places to reduce the over-reliance on overseas recruitment.

Dr Peter Carter, chief executive and general secretary of the RCN, said: "The immigration rules for health care workers will cause chaos for the NHS and other care services.

"At a time when demand is increasing, the UK is perversely making it harder to employ staff from overseas.

"The NHS has spent millions hiring nurses from overseas in order to provide safe staffing levels.

"These rules will mean that money has just been thrown down the drain."

Speaking to Sky News Employment Minister Priti Patel suggested an agreement could be reached with the nursing unions.

She said: "I think where there are exemptions required obviously the Government will look at that but it is important for me to emphasise that we will work with the nursing profession to ensure that we have the right number of nurses and nurses being trained as well so that they can enter the nursing profession but be on the front line of the NHS."

However, her suggestion that exemptions could be looked at appeared to be at odds with Mr Cameron who said there had been a significant boost to nursing and the Government had not been advised to make nursing an exempt profession.

He said: "We have got a massive training programme for nurses at the moment, there are something like 8,000 more nurses in the NHS today than when I became Prime Minister. The training programme will continue.

"But, crucially, we have an organisation called the Migration Advisory Committee and they advise us about which occupations to put on the so-called shortage occupations list, the ones where they fear skills shortages will develop. They haven't put nursing on that shortage occupation list and I think we should listen to their advice above all."