NHS trusts spent £3m on expenses-paid recruitment trips

NHS managers went on more than 750 expenses-paid trips abroad to recruit foreign doctors and nurses, in jaunts that cost up to £9,000 for every medic sourced, an investigation has found.

Three-year figures show more than £3 million was spent on the overseas recruitment trawls, with trusts sending teams around the world and expenses paid by the taxpayer.

The findings, revealed under Freedom of Information (FoI) disclosures, show that in some cases, as many as nine people were sent on the overseas trips at a time. Critics questioned the use of NHS resources, saying the focus on overseas recruitment and failure to train and retain sufficient UK staff had fuelled a workforce crisis, with more than 100,000 positions now vacant.

The figures, from 88 NHS acute trusts – two thirds of all such hospitals – show that between 2016-17 and 2018-19 they spent at least £3.347million on overseas recruitment trips.

In total, NHS employees took part in 762 such visits, in drives targeting 15 countries. The Philippines was the most popular destination, as the focus of 88 recruitment campaigns, followed by India and the United Arab Emirates.

Italy, Australia and Spain were also targeted in the recruitment trawls.

Kings College Hospital NHS Foundation funded a total of 107 trips for staff, at a cost of £166,170, including eight visits to the Philippines, six to India, and two to Australia.

The trust was among several that would not say how many recruits actually joined them as a result. The figures that were provided suggest George Eliot Hospital NHS Trust in Warwickshire spent the most per head, with total spending of £243,524 amounting to £9,328 for each of the 26 workers who took up post.

Countess of Chester NHS Foundation Trust spent £8,610 for each of four foreign nurses recruited, with funds paid to an external agency.

Royal United Hospitals Bath NHS Foundation Trust spent £415,184 over the three-year period, amounting to £3,880 per head for 107 nurses hired.

By contrast, Queen Elizabeth Hospital, King’s Lynn NHS Foundation Trust

only spent £126 per recruit. The trust sent four staff to the Philippines for four days in 2019, but managed to secure 80 new starters with recruitment costs of £10,040.

Royal Surrey NHS Foundation in Surrey recruited 252 nurses over the course of six trips, with costs amounting to £252 per new starter.

Typically, NHS trusts sent teams of four on the overseas trips.

But Rotherham NHS Foundation Trust sent five staff and four agency workers on a single expedition to Mumbai, India, which ended up recruiting just 14 junior and senior doctors. The trust said it could not identify how much this cost.

In 2019, NHS officials set a target to recruit 5,000 foreign nurses annually until 2024. Later the same year, the Conservative manifesto committed to recruiting 50,000 more nurses. But latest figures show a shortage of almost 40,000 nurses, and nearly 100,000 staff vacancies across the NHS in total.

Duncan Simpson, research director at the TaxPayers’ Alliance, which made the FoI requests, said: “These figures raise questions about the huge spending disparities when it comes to overseas recruitment. Taxpayers pay huge amounts for a comprehensive health service and expect to get the vital services they need, not funding expensive excursions.

“Trusts must ensure they are providing value for money, especially when it comes to foreign jaunts for NHS staff.”

The NHS said: “International recruits have always formed an invaluable part of the NHS workforce. However, we expect individual trusts to conduct recruitment in a cost-effective manner.”

The hospital trusts with highest spending per medic recruited from abroad were: George Eliot, £9,328; Countess of Chester, £8,610; Lancashire Teaching Hospitals, £8,333; Barking, Havering and Redbridge University Hospitals, £7,592; and South Tees Hospitals, £4,857.

None of the NHS trusts with the highest spending per recruit responded to requests for comment.

Rotherham NHS Foundation said the 2018 trip reduced the need for agency staff and their associated costs.

Royal United Hospitals Bath Foundation said: “Filling nursing vacancies is a challenge shared across the whole NHS, and international recruitment is just one important part of the RUH’s overall recruitment strategy.”

South Tees Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust said its last overseas recruitment visit was five years ago.