Irish bid to ‘poach’ NHS Scotland nursing staff
● Recruitment open days being held amid highest ever Scottish vacancy rates
Ireland’s health service is holding nursing and midwifery recruitment days in Edinburgh and Glasgow as NHS Scotland reels from their highest ever vacancy levels.
The Irish are hoping to poach registered nurses by offering a starting salary of around €28,483 (£24,689) compared to the current £22,440 for an entry level nurse starting work in Scotland.
On top of that, they will receive €1,500 tax-free for removal/relocation expenses including the cost of flights, first-time nursing registration costs, funded post graduate education and a second €1,500 allowance after completing a year in the job.
The first conference will take place at the Hilton Edinburgh Carlton today with a further event at the Radisson Blu Hotel in Glasgow tomorrow.
Earlier this week the Royal College of Nursing (Scotland) RCN warned that Scotland has “too few nurses” with the nursing and midwifery vacancy rate topping 4.5 per cent meaning 2,818.9 whole-time equivalent (WTE) posts were lying empty, a 27.5 per cent increase from March 2016. The number of such posts vacant for three months or more is up 51.3 per cent year on year to 670.6 WTE.
The Health Service Executive Ireland say they are targeting expats as part of their “Bring them Home” campaign launched in 2015.
A spokeswoman said: “Scotland has been a natural destination for our young people when looking for work abroad and we appreciate the opportunities for careers and advancement it has offered our graduates recently and indeed our nurses and doctors over the generations.
“The HSE has been running a ‘Bring them Home’ campaign aimed primarily at our nursing and midwifery graduates that left to go abroad when recruitment was put on hold
0 Scottish nurses and midwives are among those being targeted by the Irish health service in 2009. The campaign has attracted others from Croatia, the Philippines and second generation Irish in Scotland. We have targeted our expatriates in Australia, New Zealand and North America as well as England Wales and Scotland. Some of our hospital groups have had specific campaigns for specific disciplines throughout Europe and Asia.”
The RCN described the move by the Irish as “problematic” given the current levels of vacancies in Scotland.
RCN Associate Director Norman Provan said: “Many employers are struggling to recruit, and clearly other countries are having similar difficulties if Ireland’s health services are coming to Scotland to find nurses and midwives.
“This is problematic because there is already a shortage of nurses and midwives here, as the record-high vacancy rate published this week showed. With so many vacancies nurses are coming up against the reality of not being able to care for their patients in the way they would like to, because there’s just not enough staff.
“The bottom line is that without enough nurses, patients won’t receive the care they need.”
Health Secretary Shona Robison said NHS Scotland Boards also use a variety of methods to fill posts, including recruitment outwith Scotland, in other parts of Europe.
She added: “We’re committed to training and retaining our nursing staff and we confirmed a 4.7 per cent increase in trainee nurses and midwives for 2017-18 – a fifth successive rise.”