English exam made easier
FOREIGN nurses are to get easier language tests – because too many of them are failing, it has emerged.
The existing exam is considered too difficult and has been blamed for a growing staffing crisis in hospitals.
Even some Australian nurses who speak English at home have been stumped by it.
Now there are fears that a big reduction in the number of overseas nurses could leave British hospitals struggling to cope over the winter.
Figures show the number of nurses recruited ® by the NHS has plunged by 1,000 in 12 months, the first drop in four years.
Now foreign nurses will be able to take the less academic exam, which is expected to be easier to pass, from next month.
The Nursing and Midwifery Council hopes the move will boost the number of nurses working in Britain. But boss Jackie Smith has insisted that it would not compromise the safety of patients.
Hospital bosses and recruitment firms claim the current language test is so difficult that it turned into an embarrassing “own goal”. They say more than 90% of the Filipino nurses at the Medway Maritime Hospital in Kent failed to pass.
Slashed
And during the nine months after the test was extended to all EU nurses, recruitment slumped by 96% from 1,306 in July 2016 to just 46% in April this year.
Because training posts for British nurses have been slashed, the NHS has increasingly been forced to rely on foreign nurses to fill the gaps. Some 15% of all nurses working here now come from outside the country.
The new Occupational English Test is said to be easier for nurses because it tests their knowledge of familiar medical terms.
The old International English Language Test system required them to have a much larger understanding of complex scientific terms.
But yesterday the Royal College of Nursing warned that it would oppose the changes if they were “just to plug workplace gaps” or if they impacted on public confidence.