Ministers accused of breaking pledge on recruiting nurses from poor nations

The Government's promise to stop poaching nurses from developing countries was said to be "in tatters" last night after claims that controls to stop unethical recruitment had been abandoned.

The Department of Health has quietly scrapped a watchdog post designed to prevent overstretched foreign health services from being targeted and has failed to enforce a code to stop unethical recruitment.

A survey of nursing agencies involved in overseas recruitment found that less than half had signed up to the code.

Ministers have failed to replace the post of Georgina Dwight who was appointed in January 2001 as the first director of international recruitment on attachment from a London hospital.

Opposition MPs dismissed the Government's assertion that it was not recruiting nurses from poor countries in Africa and said more were being employed every year. Paul Burstow, Liberal Democrat health spokesman, said recruitment targets now took precedence over ethical considerations and overseas nurses were becoming the "lifeblood of the NHS". "Scrapping the job that was meant to protect nurses and developing countries from unethical poaching and exploitation leaves the Government's policy in tatters," he said.

The ethical recruitment code was established by the Department of Health last year. However, official figures show that of the 45 professional nursing recruitment agencies, only 21 have signed up to the department's Ethical International Nurse Code of Practice.

Recruitment of South African nurses increased from 599 to 1,086 over the past three years. Three years ago only 52 Zambian nurses were employed by the NHS but this rose to 382 last year. Nigeria supplied 347 nurses in 2001 compared to 179 three years ago and the number from Ghana increased from 40 to 140 over the same period. Many developing countries, including Ghana, have written to the Government about the impact of UK recruitment on their health services.

The Department of Health said it did not actively recruit from developing countries but would give qualified nurses from such nations job permits if they wanted to work in British hospitals. They wanted to work for the NHS because it was "a good employer."

"We have not scaled back our efforts to stop unethical recruitment practices in developing countries. Since the departure of the former director of international recruitment, the central international recruitment team at the department has been strengthened. It has continued to take forward the work the director began," said a spokeswoman.