Scotland's Health Secretary has welcomed new international nursing recruits in Fife today.
Humza Yousaf visited Victoria Hospital in Kirkcaldy to meet three nurses who have just started working at NHS Fife.
Kesia Chandy and Shincy Raju are both from India, while Eric Bautista is from the Philippines.
They have taken up permanent roles as staff nurses, with the new recruits part of a wider project to expand the nursing workforce in the Kingdom.
NHS Fife is Scotland's first health board to welcome international recruits into the workforce as part of a partnership with Yeovil District Hospital NHS Foundation Trust.
After achieving significant successes in their own international recruitment efforts, the NHS foundation trust in South Somerset has become specialists in having experienced nursing staff from overseas joining its workforce to work in a range of clinical roles within the NHS through their innovative and World Health Organisation compliant programme.
The aim of the partnership is to have up to 40 registered nurses joining NHS Fife in the coming months.
As part of the international induction programme, the new recruits are being provided with a package of support from NHS Fife that includes access to nursing accommodation, orientation tours and pastoral care to help them settle well into life north of the border.
The new staff will initially work in supporting roles for around 12 weeks ahead of completing their objective structed clinical examination test (OSCE), which will allow those involved to become UK registered nurses with the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC).
As many as three qualified radiographers are being recruited internationally to posts in Fife during the coming year, as part of the programme.
Anas Hassan, our Kingdom FM reporter, has been chatting with a range of people at the hospital.
Eric is telling us that he is aiming to use his international experience to best effect in his new role:
Janette Owens, the health board's Director of Nursing, tells us that she is pleased to have the new recruits working in the region:
Fife is leading the way in Scotland for getting international recruits to come and work here, according to the Health Secretary from the Scottish Government.
The government says that it's supporting health boards with funding to fill key roles while the recovery from the coronavirus pandemic continues.
This includes £4.5 million in this financial year to support the ethical international recruitment of registered nurses.
Meanwhile, Humza Yousaf MSP says that the government isn't panicking about a recent rise in coronavirus cases north of the border during much of the last week, with cases totalling more than 8,600 today.
But he did acknowledge that it'll take "many years to recover the NHS" after the "biggest shock" it has faced through the impact of the pandemic in the health service's history of more than 73 years.
The NHS was launched in 1948 and will reach 74 years this July.
Mr Yousaf also says that anyone eligible for a fourth Covid-19 vaccine dose from today should go and get an appointment booked (details are on the NHS Inform website):
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