New NHS plan will slash foreign recruits from 34% to less than 10% of workforce

TOI Correspondent from London: UK PM Keir Starmer has announced plans to cut the number of overseas staff recruited for the NHS from its current level of 34% to under 10% by 2035, according to the 10-year NHS health plan unveiled this week.

The largest cohort of foreign doctors and nurses in the NHS are Indian nationals. As of June 2023, there were 60,533 Indian nationals working as staff in the NHS. Of these, 10,865 hospital doctors and 31,992 nurses were Indian.

“While the NHS has always welcomed recruits from abroad, today, the NHS disproportionately relies on international recruitment…We will need to reduce the NHS’ dependence on overseas staff from its current level — where 34% of new recruits have a non-UK nationality. It’s our ambition to reduce international recruitment to less than 10% by 2035,” the plan states.

It also says UK medical graduates will be prioritised above overseas recruits for foundation training, and will be prioritised, alongside those who have worked in the NHS for a significant period, for specialty training. It said that the 2020 decision to open competition for postgraduate medical training to international trainees on equal terms with UK-trained graduates meant the competition ratios for postgraduate places had increased to a level which was “unacceptable”.

Ramesh Mehta, president of BAPIO, which represents Indian-origin doctors and nurses, is opposed to the plan. He said a third of UK-trained medical graduates left the country last year and went to places like New Zealand, Canada and Australia. “The number of medical staff required will continue to grow and will be impossible to have enough local graduates to fill the roles, especially if they continue to move abroad,” he said. He said the authors of the plan are “living in dreamland” because unless things in the NHS change, local graduates will continue to emigrate.

“Last year almost 10,000 Indian doctors came to the UK to take the screening exam to work in the NHS. But many have no jobs and some have gone back. There are no jobs in the NHS at a junior level. Many doctors can’t get postgraduate training in India so that’s why they want to come to the UK,” he said, explaining training posts should be given on merit to those already working in the NHS, not on nationality.