Foreign health workers plug gap

A shortage of physiotherapists has forced hospitals to recruit abroad

Two Teesside hospitals have solved a recruitment crisis by taking on three physiotherapists from India.

The workers were interviewed over the telephone by officials at Durham and Chester-le-Street Primary Care Trust.

The trust said a national shortage of physiotherapists had forced it to go abroad.

The new recruits are working at the University Hospital of North Tees in Stockton and the James Cook University Hospital in Middlesbrough.

Eileen Bradshaw, acting head of adult therapies, said the trust had unsuccessfully advertised the posts for a few years.

She said: "Physiotherapy is very competitive and we are training greater numbers than five years ago.

Saving money

"But what is happening is that they are working in the NHS for about two years and then doing locum work to pay off their large student loans.

"Recruiting from abroad is very simple, an agency organises the interview and this is carried out on the telephone with CVs in front of the interviewer. "

The new recruits are Jais Matthews, Pradeep Nair and Santosh Ayirookuzhi who have been in post for two weeks.

Ms Bradshaw said one of the new physiotherapists wanted to stay in the region permanently and another would be saving money to send to his family back in India.

She added: "We are hoping that this will be a learning experience, we will learn from them and they will share their experience with us."