RIVE TO RECRUIT MORE ASIAN NURSES TO BRITAIN

British Health Minister announced various measures to recruit and retain Asian and minority ethnic staff

London: A package of measures aimed at increasing the number of Asian and other minority ethnic staff in the NHS to ensure that hospitals and other NHS services reflect the community they serve was announced today by Health Minister John Denham.The measures include requiring all NHS organisations to set some local targets for the recruitment of Asian, black and other minority ethnic staff in areas of particularly poor representation, and plans to develop guidance to assist local NHS organisations with their recruitment drives.

They were considered at a national summit at the Department of Health today, chaired by Mr Denham which examined ways to improve the recruitment and retention of Asian, black and minority ethnic staff in the NHS.Mr Denham also announced a joint agreement with the Committee of Vice Chancellors and Principals aimed at increasing the number of Asian, black and minority ethnic students on professional healthcare education courses, including degrees. The bjectives of the agreement will be to: identify any barriers to black and minority ethnic students taking up places on these courses monitor the situation jointly assess the scale and nature of the issues and address them.

The measures were announced in response to figures which show that whilst the number of Asian, black and minority ethnic staff in the NHS as a whole reflects the general population, Asian people are often under-represented in nursing. Only 1.4% of NHS nursing staff are Asian, compared with 4% of Asian people in the general working population. Only 1.6% of students on nursing degree courses are from Asian backgrounds.

Young black staff are also under-represented in the NHS, as are black and minority ethnic people in senior NHS posts. Mr Denham said: "The NHS is the largest employer in the country and offers healthcare to everyone. If we are to build a modern and patient-centered NHS, we need to ensure that the staff are drawn from all sections of society and that they are all offered support and opportunities to develop to their full potential. The NHS has always drawn widely across the community for its staff, and we need to ensure that Asian people continue to be attracted to healthcare careers.

"Since 1997 we have introduced a wide range of measures to increase recruitment and tackle those measures which are of most concern to Asian and other minority ethnic staff. All NHS organisations are now required to publish an Equality Statement every year, and to show how they are tackling issues such as bullying and harassment. The recently launched HR Performance Framework and Improving Working Lives Standard provides the platform for continued improvement. We
are developing more supportive, flexible and family-friendly working practices for all NHS staff, and are introducing specific measures to support Asian, black and minority ethnic employees.

The NHS is becoming a better place to work "At senior management level, we have set targets so that by 2004 at least 7% of executive directors must be from an Asian, black or other minority ethnic background. We are currently working to ensure that Asian and black people have good opportunities to benefit from leadership and mangement development programmes in the NHS. "Earlier this year we launched a #5 million national recruitment drive aimed at attracting new staff and to encourage trained people to return to the NHS. Sections of this campaign were targeted at black and minority ethnic people and we are already beginning to see results - over 6% of nurses returning to the NHS following the campaign are from an Asian or minority ethnic background. "In some areas, NHS organisations are going even further. In Bradford, for example, the NHS has introduced a number of schemes which attract young Asian people in to healthcare careers. I hope to see more of these projects run at local level in the future. "We need to go even further, however, if we are to ensure that the NHS is seen an attractive career for all. I am determined to tackle whatever obstacles there are which prevent Asian staff from joining the NHS or reaching their full career potential within it. If the NHS is to serve the whole community, it needs the skills of everyone in it."

Wednesday 25th October 2000

LORD HUNT ANNOUNCES PROPOSALS TO EXTEND PRESCRIBING POWERS FOR AROUND 10,000 NURSES

Patients will get quicker and more efficient access to medicines under proposals to extend the prescribing powers of nurses, launched today by Health Minister Lord Philip Hunt. A consultation paper published today suggests training around 10,000 nurses to prescribe treatment for a broader range of medical conditions, including: Minor injuries and ailments like burns, cuts, and hayfever; Promoting healthlier lifestyles such as help with giving up smoking; Chronic disease management including asthma and diabetes; Palliative care. The different types of nurses able to prescribe will also be expanded, to reflect the increased range of medicines.

Lord Hunt said: "We have allocated #10 million from 2001 to 2004 to train more nurses to prescribe. This consultation is a key move to help provide patients with improved access to medicines and to help break down artificial barriers between professions."

Lord Hunt continued: "Our commitment to extend the Formulary from which nurses can prescribe and widen the range of nurses who may prescribe was reinforced in the NHS Plan, which we published in July this year. It will offer quicker and more efficient access to medicines and help us meet the demands for a modern NHS for the 21st Century."

Commenting on the proposals, Prof Sir George Alberti, President of the Royal College of Physicians, said: "We greatly welcome this new initiative. It is a logical extension of the role of many nurses, and will certainly improve the smooth management of a variety of conditions and diseases. Patients will certainly benefit." The consultation document outlines the principles and potential medical conditions appropriate for nurse prescribing, and outlines five possible options for extending the Nurse Prescribers' Formulary. It also gives examples of the kinds of nurses who are likely to benefit in the first instance from prescribing training, including nurse consultants, specialist practitioners and nurses who manage wards or clinics.

The medical, nursing and pharmacy professions were all consulted informally over the summer months. Comments on the proposals are invited by 10 January 2001. The consultation follows the Government's acceptance of the main recommendations of the Review of Prescribing, Supply & Administration of Medicines on 13 March. These included extending nurse prescribing, extending prescribing rights to other health professions when parliamentary time allows and introducing Patient Group Directions. . This consultation is directly relevant for nurses, midwives and
health visitors. Currently, only nurses who are working as a qualified district nurse or health visitor, or who hold a district nurse or health visitor qualification and are working as a GP practice nurse or in a Walk-In Centre, are eligible to train to prescribe. By early October 2000, nearly 16,000 district nurses and health visitors had already trained to prescribe from the current Nurse Prescribers'Formulary.
23 October 2000

LIFE-SAVING" SCIENTIFIC INFORMATION BOOST VIA INTERNET TO HEALTH RESEARCHERS IN AFRICA, CENTRAL ASIA AND EASTERN EUROPE

The World Health Organization (WHO) and the Open Society Institute (OSI),
a part of the Soros Foundation network, have teamed up with leading
information providers ISI* and SilverPlatter and other public and private
partners to provide access to high quality scientific information, via the
Internet, to research centres in countries in Africa, Central Asia and
Eastern Europe. Discussions are also under way with Elsevier Science to
join the initiative.

This pilot project is part of a wider United Nations programme called
"Health InterNetwork" which aims to improve global public health by
facilitating the flow of health information worldwide, using Internet
technologies.

Based on the experience gained in the first pilot year, the partnership
will roll out, over five years, sustainable, affordable scientific
information packages to medical and health research institutions in a
large number of resource-strapped countries. It is anticipated that by the
end of year two, between 30 and 40 countries will have joined.

Research, and sharing the knowledge gained through its efforts, is
fundamental to improving public health. Scientific and technical solutions
do not yet exist for tackling many of the health problems of the
developing world. Yet only a small fraction of global health research
expenditure goes to research into diseases and health issues that affect
the poor, such as malaria, killer childhood diseases and nutrition. One
step towards changing this is to facilitate research in the countries that
have first-hand experience with these health issues.

"Valuable research is carried out in developing countries and emerging
economies, but the researchers are hampered by not being able to share
essential scientific information and communication," says Dr Gro Harlem
Brundtland, WHO Director-General.

"If the researchers and scientists can read the same journals, search the
same databases, join in the discussion groups, compete for the same grants
as their colleagues from wealthier countries, it will strengthen their own
research, bring them into the international community of researchers and
eventually improve dissemination of their own results," she adds.

George Soros explains, "Through my Foundation I have already committed
significant resources to help bridge the digital divide. Now I want to
join forces with WHO and the world's leading scientific publishers to help
provide information to the health sector in emerging countries."

The pilot phase will enable researchers, teachers and students at leading
research institutions in Armenia, Ghana, Mali, Mozambique, Mongolia,
Uganda, Tanzania and Uzbekistan to access top-of-the-line international
scientific information in digital format, and to integrate the world
scientific community through electronic communication.

The private partners and OSI will organize comprehensive training for
research staff. WHO, in collaboration with the United Nations, will
discuss with service providers in the eight initial countries to provide
high-speed connectivity to the Internet.

"ISI* is proud to participate in WHO's Health InterNetwork project," said
Vin Caraher, Senior Vice President Worldwide Sales & Marketing, ISI*. "Now
we are able to extend access to the ISI* database to people in developing
nations whose needs are so severe. We look forward to working with WHO to
train and assess the Project and we expect that it will have a positive
effect on public health research, policies and care in many nations."

SilverPlatter's Chief Executive Officer Alex Sann explains, "I am
extremely pleased and excited to be teaming with our existing business
partners and WHO/OSI on this important venture. It is rewarding to assist
research institutions in their quest to better understand key health
issues and we hope to apply the lessons learned to further improve our
product offerings."

The digital divide in information is a new problem, requiring new
approaches. This multi-sector collaboration is breaking new ground within
the field of scientific publishing by making all concerned parties -
including the users of the information - work in concert to provide
solutions that neither the public nor private sector will be able to
achieve on their own.

KERALA MONITOR SPECIAL REPORT SERIES

December 17: 2000: All the Indian workers who had been stranded in the Gulf for the last 23 months are finally in India. They have managed to get out from the trap and reach home safely. Thanks to the timely intervention by the Prime Minister, who was alerted about the case by keralamonitor.com, the Indian embassy officials moved very fast and managed to get everything done within two three days. The workers have reached home safely.

Malayalee workers

However, one worker from Tamil Nadu is still in the custody of Labour officials in Muscat. However, the event raises some crucial issues about providing legal assistance to the poor illiterate workers who are often bullied by the bureaucrats, legal experts and recruiting agents in the Gulf. In this case, one Malayalee advocate ( a lady) has in fact virtually taken them for a ride. She VIRTUALLY CHEATED the workers by giving them a false promise that their dues will be cleared within a few days and managed to get a statement from the workers saying that all the claims have been received from the company. Even if the advocate represented workers in the local court, she served the interest of local sponsor.

Partial list of the Workers affected by the closure of Modern Lights, Muscat
Kurien Kurien (Thiruvanandapuram) Sreekumar (Kollam) Binu (Thiruvanandapuram) Kumareshan Manickam (Tamil Nadu-Vellore) Raja Manikkam (Tamil Nadu) Murukan (Tamil Nadu) Andrews (Bombay) Shiv Lal (Kollam) Thomas Daniel (Kottarakkara) Vikraman Pillai (Kottarakkara) Keshavan (Thiruvanandapuram) Thankappan Nair (Thiruvananthapuram) Suresh (Thiruvanandapuram) Vikraman (Thiruvanandapuram) Ampi (Thiruvanandapuram) Shaila Chandran (Thiruvanandapuram) Mathew (Pandalam) Bhaskaran (Pathanamthitta) Rajashekharan (Kollam) Shaukhath (Bangladesh) Rajesh (Thiruvananthapuram)

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