in brief

The Royal College of Nursing has launched a best practice guide to international recruitment.The guidance has been published alongside an RCN report which says the introduction of Department of Health ethical guidelines on recruitment of nurses from abroad has dispersed recruitment to countries not covered by the 1999 agreement.The report says that the freedom of the EU market does not appear to have led to any significant growth in movement of nurses between the UK and other EU countries.

www. rcn. org. uk

South West Peninsula strategic health authority is to consult on creating a new trust in north and east Devon.Three months of consultation will begin on 19 August on merging the Northern Devon trust and Royal Devon and Exeter trust.Both trusts officially welcome the plan, but local opposition is expected.

Ambulance trusts are manipulating their response time figures to meet government targets, according to an investigation by Health Which? The report says the dramatically improved response times published by many trusts over the past year should mean that survival rates have also improved.

But the data suggests this has not happened.

The Department of Health has announced measures to recruit and retain more GPs, including a£2,000 a year incentive for five years for doctors who work beyond the age of 60.The scheme will give opportunities to work part-time and return to practice more easily after a break, with the DoH paying some of the costs.

UK Transplant chief executive Sue Sutherland has written to local authorities asking them to give voters a chance to register as organ donors when they register to vote.Research shows that 70 per cent of people support transplants but only 16 per cent have joined the national donor register.