The importance of ensuring that medical and health recruiters meet Buying Solutions’ compliance standards was highlighted at a seminar in London last week.

Edward Hay, a specialist occupational nurse at health screening company Healthier Business UK outlined the main health screening checks that must be carried out before nurses on the nurse framework agreement can start work in the NHS.

Hay covered the health screening requirements for measles, mumps and rubella, hepatitis B, tuberculosis and chicken pox.

Hay warned of the dangers to recruiters if staff they supplied failed to meet the requirements, and this was discovered during a Buying Solutions audit.

He said one nursing agency went out of business within three months after an agency nurse was found to be a health risk. The discovery had led to forced closure of several parts of a very large hospital in Glasgow.

The free seminar was run by Healthier Business UK and Osmosis Training.