Private healthcare recruiters have come under attack from the Royal College of Nursing (RCN) for recruiting large numbers of foreign nurses, many from developing countries.

The criticism follows an upsurge in foreign recruitment that doubled the number of overseas trained nurses added to the UK official register last year.

At the RCN annual conference last month, delegates condemned the policy of recruiting foreign nurses to ease chronic shortages. Christine Hancock, the RCN’s general secretary, said agencies have ignored guidelines on ethical recruitment: ‘We have got significant concerns about large commercial agencies who systematically recruit very large numbers of foreign nurses, compounded by not always looking after them very well.’

An estimated 30,000 overseas nurses are currently working in the NHS and a third of London nurses are from abroad.

Bill McClimont, head of the REC’s nurses and carers division, agreed that ‘it is extremely important that recruiting from abroad is done in a responsible fashion’. He stressed that government guidelines should not be too restrictive, however: ‘If people themselves are moving from one country to another it would be ridiculous, and probably discriminatory, to refuse their services because of where they come from.’

Hancock also expressed concern about ‘whether NHS trusts are asking tough enough questions of the agencies’. At present, agencies that only recruit from abroad do not need a licence in the UK, and regulation of all forms of nursing agency is a persistent problem. McClimont said: ‘Two-thirds of local authorities have no system for

ensuring that agencies in their area are licensed by them.’

From April 2002, the National Care Standards Commission will regulate all nursing recruiters. ‘Much of the bad practice that is currently going on will be picked up by the Commission,’ McClimont predicted.