200 nurses from the Philippines are ready to go to Denmark, but because of the strict regulation of the National Heath Service they are prevented to get working permit in nurse-lacking Denmark. Because the nurses are applicants from a non-EU country they are faced with much harsher requirements than workers with an EU-citizenship according to the Danish newspaper Berlingske Tidende. This means that every single non-European applicant to a job in Denmark faces an individual and time-consuming settlement for their working permit. So far the Danish authorities have hesitated to approve the 200 Philippines.
“The nurses have received four years of training and are just as qualified as Danish nurses” says Birger Tordrup, who is president of Health Care Denmark, the bureau who provided the recruitment of the Philippine nurses.
The health department of the Danish Regions also disagrees with the behaviour of the National Health Service, because of the massive lack of nurses in Denmark.
”We need more nurses and have to ease the bureaucracy that stops us of getting them. USA and Australia has recruited a large number of Philippine nurses with great success” states Bent Hansen from the Danish Regions.
