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Record figures of internationally qualified doctors are leaving the UK, placing the NHS at risk of significant shortages in its workforce, with negative attitudes towards foreign workers being cited for the exodus.

Significant Rise in Departures

In all, 4,880 physicians who qualified in another country left the UK during 2024 – a rise of 26% on the 3,869 who did so the previous year – figures from the medical regulator reveal.

NHS leaders, experienced physicians and the GMC cautioned that increased criticism of and abuse directed at international staff in the UK was a major factor for the rise in overseas doctors leaving.

Sector Executives Voice Worry

“It’s extremely 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 skilled and appreciated people from all around the world. The variety of the NHS workforce is one of its greatest strengths.”

Dr Amit Kochhar stated: “Physicians who trained abroad have for many years constituted a significant portion of the NHS staff, and medical care in the UK would have long since collapsed without them.”

“But as we warned last month, a sustained campaign of hostile language is leaving many doctors with a international heritage considering if it is worth staying.”

Political and Regulatory Reaction

Wes Streeting voiced alarm recently that NHS employees were bearing the brunt of a resurgence to 1970s and 1980s-style discrimination in Britain where it is “tolerated to be racist”.

The rise in overseas doctors quitting occurred alongside a levelling-off in the number coming to work in Britain, the medical regulator’s yearly analysis on the state of doctor training and work in the UK for 2024 showed.

Staffing Statistics and Trends

• Over twenty thousand who joined the UK medical register in 2024 were just slightly higher than the 19,629 who did so in 2023.
• This represented the lowest growth since 2020.
• The GMC’s findings have raised concern because the NHS is so heavily reliant on physicians from elsewhere – 42% of its entire medical workforce trained overseas.

“Internationally qualified doctors who have historically chosen to work in the UK could very possibly choose to depart if they believe they have no future job progression here, or if the nation feels unfriendly,” said Charlie Massey.

“Any intensification of rhetoric and decline of support could undermine the UK’s reputation as somewhere the brightest and the best from globally would want to work.”

Employment Difficulties and Policy Impact

The plateauing in overseas physicians arriving to the UK may be because such medics are finding it harder to get a job, the GMC said.

1. Just 12.5% who joined the register in the UK last year “found a designated body” – that is, secured a post within the NHS – within six months.
2. That was lower on the 20% who did so in 2023 and 25% in 2022.

The lack in positions offered for early-career doctors to start specializing in their chosen specialty has prompted the authorities to assign more of them to domestically qualified doctors.

But the GMC’s report warns ministers that that approach, combined with the difficulty of securing a job, may be ill-advised by discouraging international physicians from relocating to the UK.

“It is crucial that workforce policies across all four [UK] nations do not inadvertently discourage or drive out the talent on which our health services depend”, stated Massey and the GMC chair.