Record figures of internationally qualified physicians are quitting the UK, placing the National Health Service at risk of significant gaps in its workforce, with hostility towards foreign workers being blamed for the departure.
Sharp Increase in Departures
Altogether, 4,880 doctors who trained in another country departed from the UK during 2024 – a increase of 26% on the 3,869 who did so the year before – figures from the medical regulator show.
Healthcare executives, senior doctors and the General Medical Council warned that increased denigration of and abuse directed at migrants in the UK was a major reason for the increase in foreign medics leaving.
Sector Executives Voice Worry
“It’s really concerning that so many well-trained and much appreciated international doctors the NHS just can’t afford to lose are departing in their droves,” said Daniel Elkeles.
“We could not operate an NHS if we had not for many years brought in skilled and appreciated individuals from overseas. The variety of the NHS staff is one of its biggest strengths.”
Dr Amit Kochhar stated: “Doctors who qualified abroad have long constituted a substantial portion of the NHS staff, and healthcare in the UK would have already collapsed without them.”
“But as we alerted last month, a ongoing trend of anti-migrant language is causing many physicians with a migrant heritage considering if it is worth staying.”
Political and Oversight Response
The health secretary voiced alarm this month that NHS staff were suffering the impact of a resurgence to historical racism in Britain where it is “socially acceptable to be racist”.
The increase in overseas doctors leaving occurred alongside a stabilization in the number arriving to work in Britain, the GMC’s annual report on the state of doctor training and practice in the UK for 2024 showed.
Workforce Statistics and Trends
- Over twenty thousand who entered the UK physician database in 2024 were only a few more than the 19,629 who did so in 2023.
- This formed the lowest increase since 2020.
- The GMC’s results have raised concern because the NHS is so strongly dependent on doctors from elsewhere – 42% of its entire doctor staff trained internationally.
“Internationally qualified doctors who have traditionally chosen to work in the UK could quite conceivably decide to depart if they believe they have no future job progression here, or if the nation feels unfriendly,” stated the GMC’s chief executive.
“Any intensification of rhetoric and decline of support could damage the UK’s image as somewhere the brightest and the best from globally would want to work.”
Job Difficulties and Government Impact
The stagnation in overseas physicians coming to the UK may be because such medics are having difficulty to secure employment, the GMC said.
- Only one in eight who became registered in the UK last year “found a NHS post” – that is, got a post within the NHS – within six months.
- That was down on the one in five who did so in 2023 and 25% in 2022.
The shortage in places available for junior doctors to start specializing in their chosen specialty has prompted the government to assign more of them to UK-trained medics.
But the GMC’s analysis alerts policymakers that that approach, combined with the difficulty of finding a job, may be misguided by discouraging international physicians from relocating to the UK.
“It is vital that staffing plans across all four [UK] nations do not accidentally discourage or drive out the skilled professionals on which our health services depend”, stated the GMC chief and the regulatory head.
