The governments of the United Kingdom and Nepal have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) on the ethical and managed recruitment of Nepal’s healthcare workers to the United Kingdom as part of a trial. Although, the MOU does not allow the organisation to actively recruit the healthcare workers from Nepal.
The MOU will enable the managed recruitment of Nepal’s healthcare workers to a single NHS trust, known as Hamsphire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust. The MOU is signed on the basis that the active recruitment of healthcare workers from Nepal will start with a primary phase that will last around 15 months.
According to the Code of Practice, Nepal is currently on the red list of countries, and the Code of Practice for the ethical international recruitment of healthcare personnel bans active recruitment from countries with staff shortages unless there is an agreement in principle between governments.
This MOU is the first healthcare worker recruitment agreement signed with a country on the Health Workforce Support and Safeguards List 2020 of WHO. Hence, it is very important to make sure that the MOU helps manage the migration of healthcare workers and is beneficial to the healthcare workers, Nepal, and also UK NHS.
