KEY POINTS:
More than half of New Zealand's newly registered nurses this year are from foreign countries, highlighting the country's worsening nursing shortage.
It comes amid warnings that Zealand's busiest hospitals are close to breaking point because of a critical shortage of junior doctors, which could have a devastating impact on patient care.
The largest numbers of overseas nurses come from Britain, South Africa and the Philippines, but Filipino nurses claim they are discriminated against because of their accent, and many will no longer be able to fill nursing jobs in New Zealand.
Earlier this year, the Nursing Council increased the levels of English needed for staff to become registered nurses in New Zealand from an average of 6.5, based on the international IELTS test, to 7 in each of the four areas - listening, writing, reading and speaking.
A level of between 6 and 6.5is needed to enrol in an academic degree course in New Zealand, but a level of 7.5 is needed for medical school.
An Auckland Holiday Shoppe travel consultant said he had 80 qualified Filipino nurses waiting to come over, but they had failed the tough new spoken English test. Zenie Low, owner of the New Zealand-based Filipino Herald newspaper, said between 1000 and 2000 Filipino nurses used to come into New Zealand each year, but that number had dropped because of the new level of English test.
But health authorities said the IELTS was a global English test which could be taken at language schools and universities, and did not discriminate against any one group. Marion Clark, chief executive of the Nursing Council, which imposed the new English standard, said the level had been raised after feedback from the profession and employers that some nurses could not understand English well enough or be understood.
"It can be a matter of life and death," she said, acknowledging that some foreign nurses who would previously have been able to work in New Zealand could no longer register.
Dr Jenny Carryer, executive director of the College of Nursing, said the deepening shortage of nurses was an international phenomenon and was likely to get worse.
New Zealand's resident nursing population was ageing - many were now 50 - and the country's population was also ageing, causing nurses to be even more in demand.
Meanwhile, figures released to the Herald on Sunday show that Auckland's three district health boards are short of 84 resident medical officers - the highest number of vacancies to date - with no quick solution in sight.
Doctors fear that already long waiting lists will grow if the deficit is not cured, as senior doctors and nurses are forced to bear the brunt of patient care.
