The absence of foreign nurses, mostly from India and the Philippines, will be "keenly" felt if the rules to hire them are not relaxed, Britain's state-run National Health Service has warned the government. Ten National Health Service (NHS) hospital trusts and NHS Employers organizations have written to UK home secretary Theresa May demanding that nursing be officially listed as an occupation with official shortages so that they can hire at least 1,000 more nurses from India and the Philippines to fill urgent vacancies for this year. India is the second-largest supplier of nursing staff to the country after the Philippines, with over 15,000 Indian nurses fulfilling shortages within the NHS.
NHS Employers chief executive Danny Mortimer said that a large number of applications have already been rejected. "These are nurses who've been recruited and could start work in the NHS shortly, but…
