Nurses from India are turning up in huge numbers as New Zealand tries to shore up its healthcare system in the face of critical shortages and medical professionals moving overseas for lucrative offers.
Nearly three in every five nurses granted the Straight to Residence (StR) visa since December 2022, when the scheme launched, are from India.
According to data from the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment, 1,225 nurses had been approved for STR visa as of September 2023. As many as 715 of them were from India.
In April this year, the government upgraded nurses to Tier 1 of the immigration Green List, making them eligible to direct residency instead of having to wait two years as per previous rules.
Nurses were among 32 new health sector roles added to the fast-track residency list to fill in vacancies at hospitals battling staff shortages.
India has been recorded to have the second-highest number of nurses after the Philippines, globally, says Vandana Rai, Director of Immigration Adviser New Zealand.
“In New Zealand, it is very heartening to see that the majority of internationally-trained nurses applying for Straight to Residence Visa/AEWV are from India. Clearly, New Zealand has managed to attract a skilled nursing workforce from India.”
About 65,000 nurses currently work in Aotearoa, some of them part time. Last year, the country’s main health agency, Te Whatu Ora, reported a shortage of about 4,000 nurses but said it did not know what the current situation was, according to an RNZ report earlier this year.
Many nurses are choosing to pursue greener pastures overseas, exacerbating the shortage. In the seven months to March 2023, nearly 5,000 New Zealand nurses had registered to work in Australia, largely for better pay and growth prospects, according to an RNZ report.
Anne Daniels of New Zealand Nurses Organisation, a union body representing more than 55,000 nurses and health workers, says with the ongoing shortage, healthcare staff from overseas is more than welcome.
“It’s great that immigrant nurses azre greenlisted for residency, however, we this is certainly not a long-term solution to the nursing crisis…
“We are also concerned that our immigrant nurses are not receiving the proper cultural and pastoral support within the New Zealand health system, and we’d like to see this changed.”
Most of the Indian nurses get the New Zealand Nursing Registration through the Competency Assessment Program. But the Nursing Council of New Zealand is changing its registration process from December 4, 2023, and that is a reason why there has been a surge in CAP nurses in the last few months, says Vandana Rai.
“Nurses can only apply to the nursing council for registration once their identity and documents have been verified by CGFNS [Commission on Graduates of Foreign Nursing Schools]. CGFNS has advised that they have a backlog of documentation to get through. As a result, nurses are experiencing long delays.”
She points out even though the nursing council anticipates there will be an 18-month transition period, where both the existing CAP and the new competence examination processes will be in place, the industry needs to keep a close eye on its impact.
“New Zealand will have a lot to lose if the new registration path is not very clear and attractive for Indian nurses,” says Rai.
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