Unprecedented Figures of Internationally Qualified Physicians Leaving the UK, Raising Major Healthcare Workforce Worries
Unprecedented figures of overseas-trained doctors are quitting the UK, leaving the NHS at danger of huge gaps in its staffing, with hostility towards migrants being cited for the departure.
Significant Rise in Departures
In all, 4,880 doctors who qualified in another country departed from the UK during 2024 – a rise of 26% on the 3,869 who did so the year before – figures from the medical regulator show.
NHS leaders, experienced physicians and the General Medical Council cautioned that increased denigration of and abuse directed at international staff in the UK was a major reason for the increase in foreign medics leaving.
Industry Executives Voice Worry
“It’s really concerning that so many well-trained and much appreciated overseas physicians the NHS just can’t afford to lose are departing in their droves,” said Daniel Elkeles.
“We wouldn’t have an NHS if we hadn’t for many years brought in talented and valued individuals from all around the world. The variety of the NHS staff is one of its greatest assets.”
A senior medical representative said: “Physicians who trained overseas have for many years made up a significant portion of the NHS staff, and medical care in the UK would have long since withered away without them.”
“But as we warned recently, a sustained campaign of anti-migrant language is leaving many physicians with a migrant background considering if it is valuable to remain.”
Political and Oversight Response
Wes Streeting expressed concern this month that NHS employees were suffering the impact of a return to 1970s and 1980s-style discrimination in Britain where it is “tolerated to be racist”.
The rise in overseas doctors leaving coincided with a levelling-off in the figure arriving to work in Britain, the GMC’s annual report on the condition of doctor training and practice in the UK for 2024 showed.
Staffing Data and Patterns
- The 20,060 who joined the UK physician database last year were just slightly higher than the 19,629 who did so in 2023.
- This formed the smallest growth since 2020.
- The GMC’s findings have caused alarm because the NHS is so strongly reliant on doctors from abroad – 42% of its entire medical workforce trained internationally.
“Internationally qualified physicians who have traditionally opted 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 seems less welcoming,” stated Charlie Massey.
“Any intensification of discourse and falling away of backing could damage the UK’s image as somewhere the most talented individuals from all over the world would want to work.”
Job Challenges and Government Effects
The stagnation in overseas physicians coming to the UK may be because such doctors are finding it harder to get a job, the GMC said.
- Just 12.5% who became registered in the UK in 2024 “found a designated body” – that is, got a position 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 offered for early-career doctors to begin specializing in their chosen medical specialism has led the government to assign a greater share of them to UK-trained doctors.
But the GMC’s analysis warns policymakers that that strategy, allied to the challenge of finding a job, may prove ill-advised by deterring international physicians from moving to the UK.
“It is crucial that workforce plans across all four [UK] nations do not inadvertently discourage or drive out the talent on which our health services depend”, wrote the GMC chief and the regulatory head.
