DOLE says there is no ban on Pinoy nurses in the UK

The Department of Labor and Employment clarified that the United Kingdom, the major host country of Filipino nurses, has not imposed a ban on Filipino nurses.

The Labor department explained that under the new policy that UK recently issued, employers intending to recruit nurses from outside of the country are first required to advertise in the UK their job vacancies particularly for "General Nurses," based on the UK's recent removal of the said category from its Shortage Occupation List.

The new policy also said UK employers would have to satisfy first the resident labor market test before they can recruit nurses from abroad.

In a press statement, Labor Secretary Arturo Brion said that the UK did not impose a ban on Filipino nurses, despite the issuance of a new hiring policy that takes effect on August 14.

He cited a report from the Philippine Overseas Labor Office saying that under the new policy, UK employers, both the National Health Service and independent health providers, would have to "satisfy first the resident labor market test before they can recruit nurses from abroad."

Brion stressed that the reported ban against Filipino nurses in the UK is non-existent first and foremost as Filipino nurses performing a vital role in the UK's health care system have helped, directly or indirectly, in the removal of the General Nurses from that country's current shortage occupation list.

"Thus, there is no truth to reports that Filipinos have been displaced in the UK. Even our POLO in London has confirmed that not a single Filipino nurse there has lost his or her job as a result of these developments," Brion said.

Despite the removal of the General Nurses from the shortage list, the UK has excluded the Specialist Nurses category from the new requirement imposed.

The specialist category includes those nurses specialized in Audiology, Sleep/Respiratory Physiology, Neurophysiology, Cardiac Physiology, Operating Theater Nursing, Clinical Radiology, Pathology, and Critical Care.

It was quoted that the UK Royal College of Nursing projected that some 150,000 UK nurses are due to retire in the next five to 10 years, and foreign nurses are expected to continue to complement the UK's own nursing workforce into the future. - Wenna A. Berondo