Rise in racism drives record numbers of overseas-trained doctors to leave the UK

Record numbers of overseas-trained doctors are quitting the UK, leaving the NHS at risk of “huge holes” in its workforce, with hostility towards migrants blamed for the exodus.

- Denis Campbell Health policy editor

In all, 4,880 doctors who qualified in another country left the UK during 2024 - a rise of 26% on the 3,869 who did so the year before - according to figures from the General Medical Council.

NHS chiefs, senior doctors and the GMC warned that the increased denigration of, and abuse directed at, migrants in the UK was a key reason for the rise in foreign medics leaving.

Daniel Elkeles, the chief executive of the hospitals group NHS Providers, said: “It’s really worrying that so many highly skilled and highly valued international doctors the NHS just can’t afford to lose are leaving in their droves.”

“We wouldn’t have an NHS if we hadn’t for many years recruited talented and valued people from all around the world. The diversity of the NHS workforce is one of its biggest strengths.”

Dr Amit Kochhar, chair of the British Medical Association’s representative body, said: “Doctors who trained abroad have long made up a significant sector of the NHS workforce, and medical care in the UK would have long since withered away without them.