I can answer one of the questions raised by J Rogers (Letters, August 7).

By hiring nurses from the Philippines, we are not contributing to any nursing shortage there.

If anything we are the beneficiaries of a surplus. I have this from my wife, herself a healthcare worker from the Philippines.

She tells me that nurses there have paid their own way through nursing colleges but there are insufficient employment opportunities for them.

The cost of living here is high but implying that foreign competition keeps down nurses' wage rates is unfair.

Even with overseas recruitment, we still have a shortfall in nursing recruitment - hardly conditions likely to depress wage rates given that we are in competition with other countries who offer more money than we are prepared to.

-GE Stroud, Brighton