The right-wing media reports that our public service are overwhelmed due to immigration. Are they?
“Yes, by those without whom our NHS would grind to a complete halt,” answered Newcastle hospital’s Craig Smart, speaking up for the migrant workers who make a vital contribution to our NHS.
The government’s attitude to these workers has been “shocking” he said and is one of the key causes of the service’s staffing crisis.
Its decision that that migrant workers will have to leave the country if they haven’t started to earn £35k a year after eight years doesn’t add up for the NHS, he said.
A band 5 nurse starts on £21,000 and only reaches £28,500 after five years. “It’s lucky these Oxbridge-educated ministers don’t have to do complicated drug calculations,” he said.
But the union was fighting back, he said: Within Newcastle hospitals, every Filipino nurse has been met by the union and given a proper “Geordie welcome.”
