It's all very well taking nurses from Poland and I don't wish to disparage these individuals in any way. But there must be huge gaps now in these Eastern European countries and who is going to look after their old folk? The whole concept is a nonsense unless Brits make the journey to Poland, Bulgaria or wherever and this just isn't going to happen.
My friend is theatre sister on the opthalmology ward of our large local hospital. She heads a team of nurses, NONE of whom are British. She has no fault to find with any of them, indeed, if they, along with ALL other nationalities were sent back to their countries of origin, she believes the NHS would collapse within a month. Further, she said there was once a time when a junior nurse, when asked to perform a caring -'menial'?- task, ie helping a patient to go to the bathroom or giving them a wash, they'd do it because they knew it was part of their training, NOW, she's required to ask would they mind doing it. On more than one occasion she's been told that the nurse in question was not doing a degree to wipe someone's bottom, and they refused. Academia and vocation, it seems, do not sit comfortably together. From the horse's mouth, our hospitals are not as clean, since outside cleaners have been employed, as they were when nurses were doing it. Could it be that nurses took more pride -and felt it to be their responsibility- in keeping patients safe, than do outside contractors?
Personally, I have no bias. I'm inclined towards employing the person best capable of doing the job. My only caveat is my concern for the very elderly whose hearing is declining, as, maybe, is their mental capacity. They don't always hear what their fellow countrymen say, trying to decipher strange accents at a time when they're at their most vulnerable, can be scary.