UKIP takes on NHS: Nigel Farage wants to ban foreign health staff who 'can't speak English properly'

Nigel Farage has pledged to get rid of NHS workers who ‘can’t speak English properly’ despite the fact that staff in the UK are already tested.

16:22 05 January 2015

Nigel Farage has taken on the NHS saying that doctors practicing in the United Kingdom who do not ‘speak English properly’ should be removed from their posts. He hinted that the UKIP government would make all 130,000 foreign health workers in the country retake language tests.

He added: “Don't we want to live in a country where we speak the same language and isn't it scandalous that we are not training enough nurses and doctors in our own country?”

“I don't know about you, whether you have even been to a GP who doesn’t speak very good English, but it's something that people out there are talking about.

“If people don't speak English and they are dealing with English-speaking patients surely they shouldn't be employed in the first place.”

However, the NHS website confirms that the health service requires doctors applying for a license to practice in medicine in the UK to demonstrate competence by achieving a specific, standard mark in the International English Language Testing System.