I am asking for your support today on behalf of the many thousands of Filipino nurses who qualify in the Philippines, after an intensive four year course of nursing and yet are unable to practice their profession in the UK, due to the requirement to pass IELTS at level 7.0. This is very hard to pass, unless you have a very good command of English as well as being incredibly good and passing tests.
This has resulted in many highly qualified nurses from the Philippines only able to work as carers or nannies here or even being not being able to come here at all.
I am of the belief that Filipino nurses are highly skilled and capable, you see, in the Philippines, you wouldn't find many nursing or care homes, most families end up caring for their sick or elderly relatives at home. This makes them a people of almost ingrained caring skills.
I truly believe that we should make it as easy as possible for these highly qualified nurses from the Philippines to come over here to the UK, where they are much needed.
The official business language of the Philippines is English. The vast majority of the Filipino people can speak English. Please see below:
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Languages_of_the_Philippines
I would like to petition the NMC to maybe offer a fast track system for Filipino nurses and healthcare professionals who are currently working here as carers or other such professions, employed in our care homes, nursing homes etc to be able to have a simple test to ensure they can speak and understand English, without the need to take the IELTS at all.
It seems such a waste to me, that we have very skilled Filipino nurses here who are not able to practice due to this ruling. Up until earlier this year, those nurses coming from within the EU, did not have to take the IELTS test at all, yet not many countries in Europe have English as their official business language. Let's be fair about this and offer our much respected Filipino nurses the same chances in life as their European counterparts.
Thank you for signing the petition and for your support
Malcolm Conlan
