ROMANIAN DOCTORS SEEK NHS JOBS IN UK

UK NEWS ROMANIAN DOCTORS SEEK NHS JOBS IN UK   Romanian doctors and nurses are seeking jobs in the NHS Sunday August 1,2010 By Mike Leidig ROMANIAN doctors and nurses are heading to Britain to work in the health service.   Public sector cuts in the former Eastern bloc country have seen health workers’ salaries slashed by 25 per cent and recruitment agencies are said to be working overtime to place disgruntled Romanians in British hospitals. They promise nurses monthly ­salaries of up to £2,500, which is up to 10 times higher than in Romania. And for doctors the gains are even more substantial. In Romania a doctor earns 150 euros (£125) a month, while his UK counterpart can take home up to £5,000. A wage cap that comes into force today has already seen many Romanian medical staff seeking jobs abroad. Research shows the UK is the most favoured destination after Germany. Since 2007, nearly 9,000 Romanian nurses, doctors and dentists have asked for permission to work abroad. Last week, scores of people attended a recruitment drive in Cluj, Transylvania, run by Business Activ Consult, one of dozens of agencies trying to fill posts in cardiology, theatre, A&E, surgery, intensive care and neurology.   Lia Ciceu, 45, who had travelled five hours by train for an interview, said: “It is my grandmother’s 98th birthday but I couldn’t pass up on this chance. I would like to work in an emergency ward or surgery. No matter how hard I work I won’t be able to secure my future here.” Another nurse, Adela Pop, 33, said: “I want to go to the UK because I have no chance of life here. With the wage I earn I can’t even afford my rent. I have two friends working in ­London. I was told a nurse can earn £26,000 a year. If I manage to save half of this sum, it would pay a part of the price of an apartment here. Sometimes I think I would love to stay in UK for good.” Maria Ionescu, 42, who wants a job in surgery, plans to move with her husband Sorin, who has ambitions to work with disabled ­children. She said: “We’re leaving everything we have, even our cat, but we have no hope for the future here.”