UK 'raiding countries' for nurses

There has been a sharp rise in the number of nurses coming to work in the UK from other parts of Europe in recent years, while the number of overseas recruits from other parts of the world has fallen.

“Raiding countries who are training their own nurses to bail out our country is ethically indefensible,” said Peter Carter, chief executive of the Royal College of Nursing.

Last year 57,000 people had applied for 20,000 training places, with 37,000 being turned away, he added.

"There are people who want to be nurses but because of cutbacks there are insufficient in the system."