Gwlad has already registered its astonishment that 65 nurses freshly trained by the Swansea Bay University Health Board (SBUHB) stretching from Gorseinon to Neath Port Talbot have not been offered employment.

This seems incredible in a Wales where we are told that we are very short of nursing staff. Indeed, what we find is that Swansea Bay University Health Board is in the process of recruiting 900 foreign nurses, largely from Kerala, India, a state known for high levels of education and a Christian population.

The Welsh nurses were accepted into training in 2022. SBUHB has known they were coming since then. In 2020, SBUHB set out to recruit 900 nurses from Kerala and other places. By last year 589 had been recruited.

The foreign nurses have been selected as experienced, well trained and competent. They are welcome additions to Wales. We hope that they will be happy here. However, it is not welcome that locally recruited and trained nurses cannot find employment. Philip Owen, Gwlad spokesperson said “This is not a recent problem. 20 years ago, the author was witness to the Princess of Wales Hospital taking 5 months to recruit a British nurse and doubtless a batch of others, while at the same time the HR Department won an award for recruiting 14 Philipina nurses. Newly qualified Welsh nurses going to England for training is also an old story. A niece had to leave Swansea for Reading to complete her training to work in the ICU.”

The manager directly responsible for this lack of planning, the former Director of Nursing, has retired. This does not absolve his superiors of responsibility. Gwlad believes SBUHB should issue a statement on why this lack of planning occurred. What are the measures to continue to let Welsh candidates access a career in nursing?

Gwlad supports the Royal College of Nursing’s call for short term measures but this is symptomatic of a deeper problem. The structure of the Welsh Government means that Jeremey Miles, the Health and Social Care Minister for Wales, is not directly accountable to the voters for the work of the SUHB. Wales is not ruled by the Welsh Government. It is ruled by the Boards and Panels, the QANGOs. These put a barrier in place between the Minister and accountability as was also seen at the Betsi Cadwaladr Health Board when the Welsh Government claimed it did not have the power and responsibility to deal with some of the problems arising. Gwlad proposes making the Health and Social Care minister directly responsible for Health Board performance and eliminating costs by replacing the independent members of the Health Boards and many others, with Senedd members generally from the opposition as part of their duties. The Crachach have ruled Wales for too long. Labour has been inserting its supporters into Welsh public life for over 100 years. 100 years ago, the county councils, dominated by Labour had more powers than the modern Senedd.

In the shorter term, there should be a review of the incentives that drive HR managers in health care to recruit foreign workers. Gwlad suspects that it is easier to recruit 14 or 900 foreign nurses from an overseas agency than it is to recruit local candidates one by one. The incentives need to be changed. The Welsh Government should do it. In 2024, 6,860 Non UK, Non EU passport holders worked for the Welsh NHS out of a total workforce of 98,007, so 7% of Welsh NHS workers. Without counting their families, these 6,860 people accounted for 17% of the 42,000 Non UK, Non EU passport holders in Wales. Removing 7,900 Ukrainians the NHS workers are 20% of the Non UK, Non EU immigrant community in Wales without counting their families.

Europe is full of small countries, some smaller than Wales, which have powered ahead, economically and socially, since achieving their independence. Gwlad believes that Wales should be one of them: a prosperous, independent market economy enjoying good relations with its neighbours and comfortable in its own skin.