Australian nurse Debbi Perring is flying home after red tape stopped her working full-time at a crisis-hit Oxford hospital, writes Victoria Owen.

The John Radcliffe Hospital is desperately short of nurses - yet Miss Perring has been told it could take up to four months to get a visa allowing her to work full shifts.

The 23-year-old from Brisbane has been employed by agency BNA First Call at the JR accident and emergency department for six months.

But her two-year working holiday permit means she can only work part-time for agencies.

Despite her enthusiasm to work full-time at the hospital, it would be illegal unless she has a special work permit or visa. Miss Perring, who lives in Cuddesdon Way, Blackbird Leys, said: "I work fewer hours than nursing staff on the hospital's payroll and I earn £1,000 a fortnight on average - much more than them.

"I love the JR and the personnel staff are so encouraging and would love me to work for them, but it's just frustrating that the bureaucracy in this country is stopping me from doing it. I could apply for the visa, but I don't want to spend months waiting for it to come through."

The nursing shortage at the JR is reaching crisis point, with one in every ten posts lying vacant.

The pressure leads to bed closures and NHS managers have been recruiting from Australia and New Zealand to ease the crisis.

But Miss Perring, who has been in Britain since October 1998, said the hospital was still in dire straits because most foreign nurses could only work as agency staff and were paid higher rates, draining the hospital of much-needed cash. Australian nurses who decide to settle in Britain have to wait three to four months for a visa, allowing them to work full-time.

She said: "The Government should be helping us get visas by changing the whole system."

A Home Office spokesman said: "If a person is already working in this country then it is up to their employer to organise their work permit.

"Most work permits are only given to people who have not yet entered the UK."

Tricia Hart, the Oxford Radcliffe Hospitals NHS Trust director of nursing, said the situation was "very frustrating".

She added: "It always takes a long time to employ people from abroad because of the work permits."

Story date: Thursday 30 December

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