Unprecedented numbers of internationally qualified physicians are leaving the UK, leaving the National Health Service at risk of huge gaps in its workforce, with hostility towards migrants being cited for the departure.
Sharp Increase in Exits
In all, 4,880 doctors who trained in another country left the UK during 2024 – a increase of 26% on the 3,869 who did so the year before – figures from the medical regulator show.
NHS leaders, senior doctors and the GMC warned that increased criticism of and abuse directed at migrants in the UK was a major reason for the rise in overseas doctors leaving.
Sector Executives Voice Worry
“It’s really concerning that so many highly skilled and much appreciated overseas physicians the NHS just cannot do without are leaving in their large numbers,” said a hospitals group chief executive.
“We wouldn’t have an NHS if we had not for many years recruited skilled and valued people from all around the world. The diversity of the NHS staff is one of its greatest strengths.”
A senior medical representative said: “Physicians who trained overseas have for many years made up a significant portion of the NHS staff, and healthcare in the UK would have long since withered away without them.”
“But as we warned recently, a ongoing campaign of hostile rhetoric is leaving many physicians with a migrant heritage questioning if it is valuable to remain.”
Government and Regulatory Reaction
Wes Streeting expressed concern recently that NHS staff were suffering the impact of a resurgence to 1970s and 1980s-style discrimination in Britain where it is “socially acceptable to be racist”.
The rise in overseas doctors quitting coincided with a stabilization in the figure arriving to work in Britain, the GMC’s annual report on the state of doctor training and work in the UK for 2024 indicated.
Staffing Data and Trends
- Over twenty thousand who entered the UK physician database in 2024 were just slightly higher than the 19,629 who did so in 2023.
- This formed the smallest increase since 2020.
- The GMC’s findings have raised concern because the NHS is so strongly reliant on doctors from abroad – 42% of its entire doctor staff trained overseas.
“Internationally qualified doctors who have traditionally opted to work in the UK could very possibly decide to depart if they feel they have no future job progression here, or if the nation seems less welcoming,” said Charlie Massey.
“Any intensification of rhetoric and decline of backing could undermine the UK’s image as a place the brightest and the best from globally would want to work.”
Job Challenges and Government Effects
The stagnation in overseas physicians arriving to the UK may be because such medics are finding it harder to secure employment, the GMC explained.
- Only one in eight who became registered in the UK in 2024 “connected to a NHS post” – ie, secured 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 offered for junior physicians to begin training in their chosen specialty has led the authorities to allocate a greater share of them to domestically qualified doctors.
But the GMC’s report warns ministers that that strategy, combined with the challenge of finding a job, may prove ill-advised by discouraging international physicians from relocating to the UK.
“It is vital that workforce policies across all four [UK] countries do not inadvertently discourage or drive out the skilled professionals on which our health services rely”, wrote Massey and the regulatory head.
