Letter: Nurses from abroad

Sir: The Government's ban on NHS trusts employing nurses from South Africa and the Caribbean (report, 27 November) is a disgraceful assault on people's freedom motivated by a dubious sense of guilt.

Morale in the South African health service is at rock bottom, largely because of a series of disastrous policies implemented dogmatically with little thought for their consequences on those who work within that service. If South African nurses were paid more than a pittance for working far harder than they do here, or if they could at least see a future for themselves there, they would not be so susceptible to recruitment drives from overseas.

As it is, the UK government has ensured that the South African government will feel no urgent need to revise the policies that have led to a mass exodus of nurses from that country. Once again, white guilt is serving the cause of Third World leaders far better than those over whom they govern.

LANCE SAKER

Durham