Record figures of overseas-trained physicians are leaving the UK, leaving the NHS at danger of significant shortages in its staffing, with hostility towards migrants being blamed for the departure.
Sharp Rise in Exits
In all, 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 previous year – data from the medical regulator reveal.
NHS leaders, senior doctors and the GMC warned that increased criticism of and mistreatment directed at international staff in the UK was a major reason for the rise in foreign medics departing.
Industry Leaders Voice Worry
“It’s extremely worrying that so many well-trained and highly valued international doctors the NHS just cannot do without are leaving in their droves,” said a hospitals group chief executive.
“We could not operate an NHS if we had not for many years brought in talented and valued people from overseas. The diversity of the NHS staff is one of its biggest strengths.”
Dr Amit Kochhar stated: “Physicians who qualified overseas have long constituted a significant portion of the NHS workforce, and healthcare in the UK would have already withered away without them.”
“But as we warned last month, a ongoing trend of hostile rhetoric is leaving many doctors with a migrant background considering if it is worth staying.”
Government and Regulatory Reaction
The health secretary expressed concern recently that NHS staff were suffering the impact of a resurgence to 1970s and 1980s-style racism in Britain where it is “tolerated to be racist”.
The rise in overseas doctors leaving coincided with a stabilization in the figure arriving to work in Britain, the medical regulator’s annual report on the state of medical education and work in the UK for 2024 showed.
Workforce Statistics and Patterns
- The 20,060 who entered the UK medical register last year were only a few more than the 19,629 who did so in 2023.
- This formed the smallest increase since 2020.
- The GMC’s findings have caused alarm because the NHS is so heavily reliant on physicians from abroad – 42% of its whole medical workforce qualified overseas.
“Internationally qualified physicians who have historically opted to work in the UK could very possibly decide to leave if they feel they have no future job progression here, or if the nation feels unfriendly,” stated Charlie Massey.
“Any hardening of rhetoric and falling away of support could undermine the UK’s reputation as somewhere the most talented individuals from globally would want to work.”
Job Challenges and Policy Effects
The plateauing in foreign doctors coming to the UK may be because such medics are finding it harder to secure employment, the GMC explained.
- Only one in eight who joined the register in the UK in 2024 “found a NHS post” – that is, got a position within the NHS – within six months.
- That was lower on the 20% who did so in 2023 and one in four in 2022.
The lack in positions available for junior doctors to start training in their chosen specialty has prompted the authorities to assign a greater share of them to domestically qualified doctors.
But the GMC’s report alerts policymakers that that approach, allied to the difficulty of finding a job, may prove misguided by deterring international physicians from relocating to the UK.
“It is crucial that staffing plans throughout all four [UK] nations do not accidentally demoralise or push away the talent on which our health services rely”, wrote the GMC chief and the GMC chair.
