Increase in NHS recruits from overseas prompts over-reliance concern

Recent analysis has found the NHS in England is increasingly reliant on doctors and nurses recruited from outside the UK and EU, with some 34 per cent of doctors joining the health service last year from overseas, a rise from 18 per cent in 2014.

The government has said overseas recruitment has always been part of its strategy, but unions have warned it is an unsustainable way of recruiting in the long-term.

A total of 39,558 domestically trained doctors and nurses joined the NHS in 2020-21, just over 3,200 more than in 2014-15.  However, UK medics have been occupying a decreasing proportion of the overall 1.35 million workforce during that period.

Danny Mortimer of NHS Employers, said it was “high time for the government to commit to a fully-funded long-term workforce plan for the NHS” to tackle “chronic workforce shortages”.

The British Medical Association have said that while the NHS is recruiting more people from abroad, it also faced a challenge retaining them, citing “punishing workloads” and the cost of visas.

Medical chiefs have warned that many are training in the UK before moving abroad where immigration laws and working conditions are more favourable.

The percentage of doctors leaving the NHS from non-UK and EU countries also increased from 15 per cent in 2015 to 25 per cent in 2021.

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Posted by Karen Motley, Clinical Negligence Department, Chadwick Lawrence LLP (tonymay@chadlaw.co.uk ), medical negligence lawyers and clinical negligence solicitors in Huddersfield, Leeds, Wakefield and Halifax, West Yorkshire.

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