Poles Working in the NHS

This blog has been created to give the people of the UK an idea as to what the poles bring to the National Health Service. I work with the poles in the NHS so my knowledge comes from the experience that i have had with these people.

When the EU opened the gates for eastern europeans i was between employers, my new employer did not employ poles, but my former employer used nurses from African contries, so i had experience working with foreign nationals, after two years i returned to my former employer, who by then had employed a substantial amount of Polish workers, the Africans by this time had now left the company, and i began to think were the poles the reason for them leaving.

The attitude of my former colleagues towards the poles were somewhat negative. I began to think in the same vein as my colleagues and wondered if there were something sinister, almost curse like towards these people.

At this point I confirmed my fears to my husband, my husband Michael is a patriot through and through and i felt that he may understand my fears. When i relayed this to him, he bit my head off and told me that the poles were a contributing factor in the Battle of Britain, and i should be grateful, as the people who I was condemning, their grandfathers fought for the freedom that every person takes for granted today.

Armed with this knowledge i thought that i would make myself more accessible to these people and encouraged better communication between us. As time went on it became apparent that although these people come here to work as labourers, drivers, carers etc, that they were in fact in their own country professional people, solicitors, accountants etc, yet they come to this country to work for what we class low paid jobs, but to understand this the pay in Poland was somewhat meagre to say the least.

The problems that the poles bought with them was communication, poor english, but they seem to be addressing this issue, and i would say the women who i work with are no different to anyone else i have worked with, and as for the curse like eeriness i felt, well maybe that was apprehension of a different culture and nothing more.

I have enjoyed working with the poles and feel somewhat saddened that it seems that they are returning to Poland in their droves.