90% of Pinay nurses accepted to UK hospital flunk language test


A program designed to accept Filipino nurses to the United Kingdom hit a snag after 90 percent of the first batch of 200 failed a language test, The Times reported on Tuesday.
Only 12 percent or seven of 59 nurses from the 200 recruited earlier in 2017 passed the English language test required to work at the Medway Maritime Hospital in Gillingham, Kent.
The 59 nurses were supposed to begin their contract in autumn to fill some of the 394 full-time nursing vacancies at Medway.
Nurses from non-European Union countries are required to take an English oral, reading, writing, and listening test prepared by the Nursing and Midwifery Council.
Applicants only need to score 80 percent and above to pass the mandatory language test.
A report on Kent Online in April said more than 200 nurses were offered employment at Medway after managers from Medway NHS Foundation Trust flew to Manila in March as part of a recruitment drive.
Medway, struggling to reduce its spending on temporary workers, offered nurses "a £3,000 recruitment and retention bonus paid over 26 months, flexible working hours, and a relocation loan." —Rie Takumi/KBK, GMA News

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