NHS staff 'denied English class'

Lecturers have visited hospitals to work on communication skills

Doctors, nurses and other key workers from overseas are being denied access to free English lessons, two lecturers have claimed.

The staff, from Bridgend College, have said they have been told to stop recruiting pupils from outside the EU.

The lecturers have blamed a ruling imposed by the education and training body ELWa.

Elwa has said people from outside the EU are not eligible until they have been in the UK for three years.

Head of department at Bridgend College, Peter Foley said the three-year rule was "an absolute nonsense".

He said that potential NHS staff would "probably have lost interest in the medical profession after three years".

Without these courses, I think I wouldn't be able to improve my English language and it is very very important Dr Amer Zaman

"At the moment, they can't win under present rules," he said.

Fellow lecturer Phil Jones said the situation made him "extremely angry".

"You are putting a hurdle up in front of these people and not allowing them to progress and we need these people to bolster our NHS," he said.

Dr Amer Zaman, from Pakistan, said he had been to the classes and found them invaluable.

"Without these courses, I think I wouldn't be able to improve my English language and it is very very important.

Dr Zaman, who hopes to specialise in child health care, said it would be a "disaster" if the classes were cut.

"You need doctors, so encourage doctors, help them to work for you," he said.

"I think without these courses, the NHS will be very much affected and who will suffer - just the patients."

Ron Davies, director of the Valleys Race Equality Council, said Elwa was treating English as a second language "in the same way that they would treat people who wanted to learn Spanish for their summer holidays or woodwork or flower arranging".

"At the moment, it is government policy obviously ... to meet shortages from the national health service from overseas," he said.

"If government and Elwa want to ensure there is a ready supply of properly trained people to meet these desperate skill shortages, they have to pick up the bill."

Issues investigated

A statement from Elwa said it "currently works to funding eligibility criteria that follows the UK Government guidance on funding for learners from overseas".

"The criteria outlines that ELWa can fund learners from across the UK and EU nationals but does not extend to non-EU nationals who have not lived in the UK for three years."

The statement added that the Higher Education Funding Council for Wales and its sister bodies across the UK continue to look at the issues surrounding the recruitment of learners into the health professions.

Julie Chapman, the assistant principal at Bridgend College, said: "When college staff look at the eligibility of individual students, then if they don't fall into the eligibility category for Department for Education and Skills student awards, we do not turn students away, but seek funding either from the student or the company or organisation they work for."