NHS facing ‘huge holes’ in workforce if foreign doctors leave UK, report warns

The NHS could be left with “huge holes” in its medical workforce if foreign doctors leave the health service, according to the medical regulator.

A new General Medical Council (GMC) report has revealed that 4,880 doctors who trained abroad left the UK workforce in 2024 – a 26% increase on 3,869 in 2023.

Doctors who qualified outside of the UK currently make up around 42% of the workforce, it said.

GMC chief executive Charlie Massey said: “Doctors represent a mobile workforce, whose skills are in high demand around the world. Internationally qualified doctors who have historically chosen 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 less welcoming.

“Any hardening of rhetoric and falling away of support could undermine the UK’s image as somewhere the brightest and the best from all over the world want to work.

“It is vital that workforce policies do not inadvertently demoralise or drive out the talent on which our health services depend.

“Doctors who qualified outside of the UK make up 42% of those working in the UK.

“If we see even a small percentage increase in them leaving, our health services will end up with huge holes that they’ll struggle to fill.”

It comes after health leaders warned that St George’s flags are creating “no-go zones” for NHS staff, with some facing frequent abuse.

Workers feel intimidated by the presence of the flags across the country, including when they are visiting people in their own homes to give them treatment, according to several NHS trust chief executives and leaders.

An NHS Providers poll of senior managers found 45% were extremely concerned about discrimination towards NHS staff from patients and the public, while a further 33% were moderately concerned.

Mr Massey added: “Whatever the future makeup of the workforce, we all – from employers to regulators, policymakers to the profession itself – have a duty to recognise the essential contribution all doctors make, irrespective of background, and to ensure that each one is supported and valued accordingly.”

Speaking last week about resident doctors going on strike, Health Secretary Wes Streeting said he was proposing changes to improve doctors’ lives, including more training places and changes to international recruitment.

He acknowledged that two-thirds of the 30,000 doctors applying for 10,000 training places are international medical graduates.

Mr Streeting said: “One of the things that I’m doing is putting an end to the absurdity where homegrown talent are having to compete for the same training places on equal terms against people who’ve trained overseas.

“I think it’s crackers. I think it’s unfair to our own doctors. I also think it doesn’t help this country with unmanageable levels of net migration.

“So, I’m working as fast as I can and hopefully that will be by 2027, but I’m actually looking at whether I can do something much more urgently.

“The challenge is a legal one. I’m looking at whether there are things I can do more quickly.”