One wonders which other countries have recruitment agencies offering British jobs, and are there truly no suitably qualified job seekers already in the UK ?
At first sight the BMA estimate of " 3000 unemployed junior doctors " - just over 1% of all registered UK doctors - compares favourably with the total unemployment rate of over 8%. No graduate in other disciplines is guaranteed a job. On the other hand, it costs the taxpayer £250,000 to train every doctor.
But in the same year as the BMA estimate it was claimed that only 150 doctors were on the dole (
http://www.badmed.net/bad-medicine-b...mployment.html ). It's more likely to be an effect of the European Working Time Directive limiting training doctors to a 48 hour week. This is impacting adversely on staffing levels, costs and time available for training. Junior doctors are voting with their feet and leaving NHS training posts. It doesn't mean they're unemployed - they may continue working in other healthcare posts, go abroad ( or take a gap year ). Perhaps " residential medical officers " - as described in the Romanian job offers - are posts which cannot be filled by British graduates. These may be training posts, or more likely non-training " service " posts with no chance of becoming consultants.
As for nurses, the UK is losing - rather than importing - them. Australia is the most popular destination, followed by the USA. But the pendulum could swing the other way after next year, when nursing becomes a graduate-only profession. This will be a disincentive to girls ( and boys ) who might otherwise be motivated to become nurses. It should also sound an optimistic note for the 50,000 or so filipino nurses who qualified in 2010, only a quarter of whom found a job abroad. There's no shortage of nurses in the Philippines. Hopefully there will be more vacancies in the next few years - in hospitals, not just care homes as advertised for Romanians.
