Language tests for overseas nurses were introduced in 2007, but until last year, those who came to the UK from EU countries were exempt from them. The NMC said no decision had been taken about any change in the rules “Our foremost consideration must always be protection of patients and the public and we will be gathering data and evidence to inform our consideration of whether any variation in either direction is needed to the current standards,” the board paper states. A petition calling for the pass rate to be reduced has been signed by more than 3,600 nurses. The man behind it, Febin Cyriac, is the managing partner of a UK healthcare recruitment firm, which targets nurses from overseas. Mr Cyriac, who is also employed by a fast food delivery chain, makes no mention of his commercial interest in expanding recruitment from overseas, in the public petition. NHS trust senior managers have called on the regulator to drop the pass rates. Jackie Daniel, chief executive of University Hospitals of Morecambe Bay NHS Foundation trust, has written to the head of the NMC, calling for pass rates to be reduced. Ms Daniel asked for the system to be reviewed, after scores of nurses recruited by the trust were rejected by regulators for poor English. Just two of 104 new staff recruited from overseas in 18 months were able to start work at her trust. The senior manager said the NHS was too short staffed to afford to lose overseas nurses to countries such as the United States and Canada, which accep a lower, 6.5 pass rate. “We need these applicants,” she said. "We are reaching a point in the road now where things are coming to a head in terms of workforce." Last month a report by healthcare staffing agency HCL Workforce Solutions said the current language requirements were “unjustified”. Across a sample of 14 NHS trusts, around 50 per cent of around 2,000 nurses it has recruited have either dropped out of the process or been removed since November 2014 because of failed tests, it said. The delays and repeat tests meant it was taking an average of a year between recruitment and deployment in the NHS, the report said. The report’s authors told Nursing Times that until last year - when language tests were extended to EU countries - nurses from elsewhere in Europe were usually able to start work in the UK within two months. An NMC spokesman said: “Patient safety is always our first priority and as such, the Code requires all nurses and midwives to have the necessary command of English in order to practise safely and effectively." He said the regulator was aware of concerns about the current policy, and would gather evidence in the coming months but had not committed to changing the standard.
The Nursing and Midwifery Council is auditing the standards English language tests require of foreign nurses after hospital managers and recruitment agencies lobbied to have the pass rate reduced. The current language requirements led around 50% of nurses to fail or drop out of the test since November 2014, according to a recent report from healthcare staffing agency HCL Workforce. However, patients' groups and the Royal College of Nursing have warned that any drop in standards could jeopardise the safety of nursing practice.