Poll shows 60% of European doctors are considering leaving UK
This is particularly challenging for smaller and rural trusts which often have a higher dependency on overseas doctors. The story tells us:
More than half of the doctors from Europe working in the UK are considering leaving the country because of Brexit, a survey by the General Medical Council indicates.
Charlie Massey, the chief executive of the GMC, told the health select committee that while a survey was “not necessarily predictive of future behaviour” the results indicated a potential serious depletion in the workforce.
“It does send a worrying signal in terms of the stock of doctors currently working in the UK,” he said while giving evidence to MPs on Tuesday.
Jonathan Ashworth, the shadow health secretary, said it was “extremely concerning that over half of doctors from the EEA [European Economic Area] feel so undervalued as to consider leaving the UK following the Brexit vote”.
The GMC said 2,106 doctors from the EEA, about 10% of the total who are working in the UK, had responded to the survey.
Of those who responded, 60% (1,280) said they were considering leaving the UK at some point in the future, and, of those doctors, 91% said the UK’s decision to leave the EU was a factor in their considerations.
Separately, a senior Department of Health official told the committee that British people claiming pensions who had emigrated to Europe were saving the UK about £350m a year in healthcare costs. Medical treatment in the most popular countries for British retirees, France and Spain, was cheaper than it was in the UK, said Paul MacNaught the director of EU, international and prevention programmes at the DoH.