BMJ  2004;329:532 (4 September), doi:10.1136/bmj.329.7465.532

News

South Africa and Britain reach agreement to curb poaching of healthcare staff

Pat Sidley

Johannesburg

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

The UK and South African governments have agreed to slow down the migration of South African doctors and other healthcare professionals to the United Kingdom. The move is part of UK proposals to strengthen the code of practice on international recruitment and to prevent agencies stripping 150 developing countries, including South Africa, of their doctors and nurses.

The proposals include offering private sector employers that sign up to the code access to international recruitment programmes in a bid to slow "back-door" recruitment into the NHS and closing a loophole that permits the recruitment of locum and temporary staff from developing countries. The code will also be extended to other areas of the NHS, not just agencies supplying overseas staff.

The public health service in South Africa has been hit hard by acute shortages of doctors, despite remedial measures by the government. Doctors have been brought in from Cuba under an . . . [Full text of this article]


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Rapid Responses:

Read all Rapid Responses

Blame It On Apartheid
Joseph . C . Obi
bmj.com, 3 Sep 2004 [Full text]
Impossible to return to South Africa
Andrew C Don-Wauchope
bmj.com, 3 Sep 2004 [Full text]
No need to poach (we're scrambling to get there)
Nicole Karen Fung (MRCPsych)
bmj.com, 3 Sep 2004 [Full text]

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