🔗 Share this article

Record numbers of internationally qualified doctors are quitting the UK, placing the NHS at danger of significant gaps in its staffing, with negative attitudes towards foreign workers being blamed for the departure.

Significant Rise in Departures

In all, 4,880 physicians who trained in overseas departed from the UK during 2024 – a increase of 26% on the 3,869 who did so the year before – data from the medical regulator reveal.

NHS leaders, experienced physicians and the General Medical Council cautioned that growing criticism of and mistreatment directed at migrants in the UK was a major reason for the increase in overseas doctors leaving.

Sector Executives Express Concern

“It’s really concerning that so many highly skilled and much appreciated overseas physicians the NHS just can’t afford to lose are departing in their large numbers,” said a hospitals group chief executive.

“We wouldn’t have an NHS if we had not for many years brought in skilled and appreciated individuals from all around the world. The variety of the NHS staff is one of its biggest strengths.”

A senior medical representative stated: “Doctors who trained abroad have for many years constituted a substantial sector of the NHS staff, and healthcare in the UK would have long since collapsed without them.”

“But as we alerted recently, a sustained trend of hostile language is causing many doctors with a migrant heritage questioning if it is worth staying.”

Political and Oversight Response

Wes Streeting voiced alarm this month that NHS employees were bearing the brunt of a resurgence to historical racism in Britain where it is “socially acceptable to be racist”.

The increase in overseas doctors quitting occurred alongside a stabilization in the figure coming to work in Britain, the GMC’s yearly analysis on the state of doctor training and practice in the UK for 2024 showed.

Workforce Statistics and Trends

• The 20,060 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 increase since 2020.
• The GMC’s findings have raised concern because the NHS is so heavily reliant on physicians from elsewhere – 42% of its whole doctor staff qualified overseas.

“Internationally qualified physicians who have traditionally chosen to work in the UK could very possibly decide to depart if they feel they have no future job progression here, or if the country feels less welcoming,” stated Charlie Massey.

“Any intensification of discourse and falling away of support could damage the UK’s reputation as a place the brightest and the best from globally would want to work.”

Job Challenges and Policy Impact

The stagnation in foreign doctors arriving to the UK may be because such medics are finding it harder to secure employment, the GMC explained.

1. Only one in eight who became registered in the UK in 2024 “connected to 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 shortage in places offered for early-career doctors to begin training in their chosen specialty has led the government to allocate a greater share of them to domestically qualified medics.

But the GMC’s analysis alerts ministers that that approach, combined with the difficulty of securing a job, may be ill-advised by deterring international physicians from moving to the UK.

“It is crucial that staffing policies across all four [UK] nations do not accidentally discourage or drive out the skilled professionals on which our medical system depend”, wrote the GMC chief and the regulatory head.