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Record numbers of internationally qualified physicians are leaving the UK, leaving the National Health Service at danger of huge gaps in its workforce, with negative attitudes towards foreign workers being blamed for the exodus.

Significant Increase in Exits

Altogether, 4,880 physicians who qualified in overseas departed from the UK during 2024 – a increase of 26% on the 3,869 who did so the year before – figures from the General Medical Council reveal.

Healthcare executives, experienced physicians and the GMC cautioned that increased denigration of and mistreatment directed at migrants in the UK was a significant reason for the rise in foreign medics departing.

Sector Leaders Express Concern

“It’s extremely worrying that so many well-trained and much appreciated international doctors the NHS just can’t afford to lose are leaving in their large numbers,” said Daniel Elkeles.

“We could not operate an NHS if we hadn’t for many years brought in skilled and appreciated individuals from all around the world. The variety of the NHS workforce is one of its biggest assets.”

A senior medical representative stated: “Physicians who qualified overseas have for many years made up a significant portion of the NHS workforce, and healthcare in the UK would have already collapsed without them.”

“But as we warned recently, a ongoing trend of anti-migrant rhetoric is leaving many doctors with a migrant heritage questioning if it is worth staying.”

Government and Oversight Reaction

Wes Streeting expressed concern recently that NHS employees were suffering the impact of a resurgence to historical racism in Britain where it is “socially acceptable to be prejudiced”.

The rise in overseas doctors leaving occurred alongside a stabilization in the figure arriving to work in Britain, the medical regulator’s annual report on the condition of medical education and work in the UK for 2024 indicated.

Staffing Statistics and Trends

• Over twenty thousand who joined the UK medical register last year were just slightly higher than the 19,629 who did so in 2023.
• This formed the smallest increase since 2020.
• The GMC’s results have caused alarm because the NHS is so heavily dependent on doctors from abroad – 42% of its whole medical workforce qualified overseas.

“Overseas-trained physicians who have traditionally opted to work in the UK could quite conceivably choose to leave if they feel they have no future job progression here, or if the country feels unfriendly,” said Charlie Massey.

“Any hardening of rhetoric and falling away of support could damage the UK’s reputation as somewhere the most talented individuals from globally would want to work.”

Employment Difficulties and Government Impact

The stagnation in foreign doctors arriving to the UK may be because such doctors are having difficulty to get a job, the GMC explained.

1. Only one in eight who became registered in the UK in 2024 “found a NHS post” – that is, got a post within the NHS – within six months.
2. That was down on the one in five who did so in 2023 and one in four in 2022.

The lack in positions available for junior doctors to begin training in their chosen specialty has prompted the government to allocate a greater share of them to UK-trained medics.

But the GMC’s report alerts policymakers that that approach, combined with the challenge of finding a job, may prove ill-advised by deterring international physicians from relocating to the UK.

“It is crucial that workforce policies throughout all four [UK] nations do not inadvertently discourage or drive out the skilled professionals on which our health services rely”, wrote Massey and the regulatory head.