Brexit: Germany promises ‘better pay, weather and food’ to tempt NHS nurses to leave UK

Adverts targeting Polish nurses also boast Germany is much closer to family at home

A German hospital is trying to lure NHS nurses to leave the UK after Brexit with promises of better pay, weather and food.

The University Hospital of Dusseldorf has placed adverts in two Polish newspapers published in Britain, hoping to convince Poles currently working in NHS hospitals to swap Britain for Germany.

The adverts, written in German and Polish, feature Dusseldorf’s attractive skyline against blue skies with the River Rhine in the foreground.

As well as telling Polish nurses they could boost their salaries, the adverts also point out Germany had better weather and cuisine than Britain.

It is also much easier to get home to family in Poland from Dusseldorf, which is almost 350 miles closer to home than Britain, the hospital noted.

Torsten Rantzsch, the director of nursing at the hospital, said they had already received some enquiries from interested nurses.

“We also wanted to offer an alternative to Polish colleagues, namely the security of an EU country.”

His hospital needs to hire 100 additional nurses and has decided to focus on Poles because many already learned German at school. Germany overall has a shortage of 70,000 nurses.

The charm offensive was launched as more and more Europeans working in Britain are beginning to worry what will happen after 29 March, when the UK is still scheduled to leave the EU.

Although their right to live and work in Britain would be guaranteed under Theresa May’s proposed deal, the situation would be cast into doubt if Britain were to crash out of the bloc without a withdrawal agreement in place.

Since Poland joined the EU in 2004, some 20,000 of the country’s nurses - about 7 per cent of the total - have left to work in hospitals across the continent.

Seven per cent of NHS nurses are from EU countries, the latest figures from June last year show.

A new official survey suggests about one in three NHS workers are considering leaving their jobs, although this is mostly thought to be down to the rising levels of stress, which have hit their worst for five years.

Although Dusseldorf’s university hospital is hoping to capitalise on the chaos of a no-deal Brexit, the head of Germany’s main business group has warned it would cause “massive economic damage” and even knock off half a percentage point from German economic growth.

“That means 17 billion euros less economic power in this year alone,” Joachim Lang said.

“It would be absurd for the United Kingdom to slide into a hard Brexit in four weeks’ time, one that even the majority in London’s Parliament rejects.

“If the British Government can’t find a majority in the lower House in March, then it is time to stop the Brexit process.”