OVERSEAS health workers’ visas must be extended “as a matter of urgency” to help tackle the second wave of coronavirus, trade unions said today.

In April, Home Secretary Priti Patel announced that foreign healthcare workers whose visas expire before October this year would have them automatically extended free of charge for 12 months.

However, healthcare unions Unison, the British Medical Association and the Royal College of Nursing (RCN) have now written to Ms Patel to demand the scheme’s extension for the duration of the pandemic.