Should Foreign Medical Staff Be Vetted More Thoroughly Before Being Let Loose On Our Ill?

[anotheoldgit]

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3086922/Blunders-left-evil-nurse-free-kill-NHS-ward-Demands-inquiry-Filipino-psychopath-forged-qualifications-poisoned-22-patients.html

[douglas9401]

Yes, much more thoroughly.

[sandyRoe]

Yes, and not just nurses. Some may remember the African doctor based in Germany who came here to do a few lucrative shifts who killed a patient by giving him an overdose of painkiller.

[Retrochic]

It beggars belief that question needs asking actually. All UK's medical staff seem to be ending up in Canada USA and Australia where they get a wage that reflects their skills, while we welcome in dodgy staff who can hardly understand English its an utter disgrace. I recently visited someone in a NHS hospital who had hardly seen a 'real' nurse and was being looked after by an 'auxiliary' who looked like a cleaner.

[mikey4444]

Based on the evidence of Stepping Hill, then yes, but I would extend this to all medical staff, not just the foreign ones. This is not the first times that this has happened with a nurse. The last one I can remember is Beverly Allitt, who wasn't even a little bit foreign.

[zebo]

All medical staff should have checked, genuine qualifications. Anyone who has worked in the public sector though will know that for the last 25 years, a person questioning the qualifications or ability of a foreign national was pilloried as "racist", as I know to my cost when I asked that supply teachers for my department should be able to communicate, in English.

[Baldric]

Why only Foreign, was Harold Shipman vetted before being let loose?

[woofgang]

When I was working in the NHS, we were required to check the qualifications of staff we employed including foreigners. All Nurses, Occupational Therapists and Physiotherapists have to be registered and its possible to go online and confirm that they are. I believe that doctors are too but we didn't employ those in my service. Where staff are employed via a bank service, it is the responsibility of the agency to check their qualifications.

[woofgang]

It is. of course much harder to check that they are sane.

[Old_Geezer]

Yes they should all go to the vet first: can't have them breeding over here.

[andy-hughes]

From comments I heard on the radio yesterday, the lax procedures that allowed this nurse to work in the UK are no longer in place - and he would not have got through modern vetting procedures.

[woofgang]

https://www.nmc.org.uk/registration/search-the-register/

http://www.hpc-uk.org/check/

http://www.gmc-uk.org/doctors/medical_register.asp

I understand that there are reciprocal agreements with some countries to accept the qualification of people trained and qualified in those countries but it should still be checked. Where people slip through the net its because there is a failure in the process, not that the process doesn't exist.

[anotheoldgit]

Amazing how some wish to turn this round by quoting certain non foreign killers rather than address the real concerns regarding false qualifications accepted by the authorities which in turn allows these foreigners to practice on our ill patients.

Oh dear I have used those words 'Foreign' and 'Foreigners' again, how very racist of me.

[mikey4444]

Its not racist of you AOG, just par for the course. The issue at stake here is how this chap managed to kill and poison so many people, without being suspected. If his qualifications were not checked properly is another issue altogether. After having listened to this being discussed on yesterday's BBC news broadcasts, this was an accident waiting to happen.

As has been pointed out by others, malpractice can exist in the NHS remarkably easily and has done on numerous times in the past. If you study people Shipman and Beverley Allitt, you can see how lax the system was that was in place at the time. We seem to have learned nothing from these past examples whatsoever and unless we learn from this case, more cases will happen in the future.

[mikey4444]

And if we didn't allow "these foreigners" to practise in our NHS, it would collapse overnight.

[Old_Geezer]

Not really. No one suggests slinging them all out at once with no one to replace them. What we should do is train enough natives to fill the job positions and pay an attractive enough wage to ensure they stay.

Domestic market forces unsullied by free movement of labour from poorer parts of the world presently providing nursing care on the cheap, and ignore the wider costs to the country.

It would be a gradual process and allow foreign nursing staff to stay in their country where they are probably needed; instead of we just poaching them.

[Retrochic]

The NHS is only collapsing because nurses and doctor are not paid a competitive wage. Nursing now only attracts those who want a University Education instead of those actually 'caring' about people and when they qualify they tootle off to a Private Hospital or abroad. We would not need illiterate foreign NHS workers if British staff were paid a suitable wage!

[mikey4444]

Retrochic....read the following. These wage rates don't look so bad to me ::::

Nurses ...

http://www.rcn.org.uk/support/pay_and_conditions/pay_rates_2014-15

Doctors ....

http://www.nhscareers.nhs.uk/explore-by-career/doctors/pay-for-doctors/

[anotheoldgit]

Retrochic

/// Nursing now only attracts those who want a University Education instead of those actually 'caring' about people ///

How very true, one doesn't need a Degree to 'care' for people.

[RATTER15]

Victorino Chua, has been sentenced to a minimum of 35 years inside.

[Old_Geezer]

Whatever the level they seem unable to attract & keep.

But I accept the point that nursing seems to have been "upgraded" so it isn't just about nursing and the willingness to get one's hands dirty caring for folk any more. It seems to be portrayed as a type of paramedic, or "doctor lite". University level qualifications for nursing is probably blurring the edges of responsibility to the detriment of the system.