Record Numbers of Internationally Qualified Physicians Departing the UK, Raising Major Healthcare Workforce Worries

Unprecedented numbers of overseas-trained doctors are leaving the UK, placing the National Health Service at risk of significant gaps in its staffing, with negative attitudes towards foreign workers being cited for the departure.

Sharp Increase in Departures

Altogether, 4,880 doctors who trained in another country departed from the UK during 2024 – a rise of 26% on the 3,869 who did so the previous year – figures from the medical regulator reveal.

Healthcare executives, experienced physicians and the GMC warned that increased denigration of and abuse directed at migrants in the UK was a major reason for the rise in overseas doctors leaving.

Sector Executives Voice Concern

“It’s really concerning that so many highly skilled and highly valued overseas physicians the NHS just cannot do without are departing in their droves,” said Daniel Elkeles.

“We could not operate an NHS if we had not for many years recruited skilled and valued people from overseas. The diversity of the NHS staff is one of its greatest strengths.”

Dr Amit Kochhar said: “Physicians who trained overseas have for many years constituted a significant portion of the NHS staff, and healthcare in the UK would have already collapsed without them.”

“But as we alerted last month, a ongoing campaign of hostile rhetoric is causing many doctors with a international heritage considering if it is worth staying.”

Government and Oversight Response

The health secretary voiced alarm recently that NHS employees were suffering the impact of a return to historical racism in Britain where it is “socially acceptable to be prejudiced”.

The increase in overseas doctors leaving coincided with a stabilization in the figure arriving to work in Britain, the medical regulator’s yearly analysis on the condition of medical education and practice in the UK for 2024 showed.

Staffing Statistics and Trends

• The 20,060 who joined the UK physician database last year were only a few more than the 19,629 who did so in 2023.
• This represented the lowest growth since 2020.
• The GMC’s results have raised concern because the NHS is so heavily dependent on physicians from elsewhere – 42% of its whole medical workforce qualified overseas.

“Internationally qualified physicians who have historically chosen to work in the UK could very possibly decide to depart if they believe they have limited career advancement here, or if the country seems less welcoming,” said Charlie Massey.

“Any intensification of discourse and falling away of backing could damage the UK’s reputation as a place the most talented individuals from all over the world would want to work.”

Employment Challenges and Government Effects

The plateauing in overseas physicians arriving to the UK may be because such medics are having difficulty to get a job, the GMC explained.

1. Just 12.5% who joined the register in the UK in 2024 “found a NHS post” – that is, got a position 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 offered for early-career doctors to begin training in their chosen specialty has led the authorities to allocate a greater share of them to UK-trained medics.

But the GMC’s report warns policymakers that that approach, allied to the difficulty of finding a job, may be misguided by deterring overseas doctors from moving to the UK.

“It is vital that workforce policies throughout all four [UK] countries do not accidentally discourage or push away the skilled professionals on which our medical system depend”, stated Massey and the regulatory head.