My own experience is primarily regarding nurses from the Philippines but I believe it is a similar situation in the other countries from whom we recruit nurses.

It is a requirement that a nurse spends at least 2 years working locally after qualification before being allowed an exit visa to work overseas, which most want to do.

Nursing is a much prized career in these countries and as the cost of the 5 year course has to be borne by the family it's a very heavy commitment. Which is why most are expected to remit most of their earnings back home. You see a lot of Filipino nurses in our hospitals but very rarely in social settings.

A far greater of young people there though choose nursing as their career than do here. There are also many more colleges. It is taught on an industrial scale because of the demand from countries like ourselves.

I know less about the situation with doctors, but I suspect it is similar.

So yes it bothers me, but it's not a straightforward situation.

The geographic origin of the 'Spanish flu' remains uncertain.

Surely the answer then is that if you sign a contract to the effect that If you have a 3,4,5 Year training course paid for you. Then you are legally bound to stay with the NHS for a pre determined time or you pay back your College/training money?

So you don’t think the Philippines would benefit from having their trained nurses staying and looking after their own? Or is it all about money?

FFS. Let’s try again. They qualify way more nurses than they need expecting many to work overseas once they’ve worked for at least two years locally. And they are very high quality. The RMNs effectively study for a Masters.

Edited by Mapletree (16 Apr 2020 10.17pm)