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Brexit has exacerbated Britain’s shortage of doctors, with an estimated 4,000 shortages in key specialties from EU countries, a study published on Sunday (November 27) revealed.
It comes at a time when the crisis-hit NHS state-funded health service is struggling after years of underfunding, with record waiting lists for some hospital care due to the Covid pandemic but also shortages of doctors and nurses.
The Nuffield Trust, an independent health think tank, focuses on four areas of medicine – anaesthesia, paediatrics, cardio-thoracic surgery and psychiatry – where the UK relied exclusively on European doctors before it left the European Union.
It found that in four areas – where recruitment was already challenging – “growth in EU and EFTA (European Free Trade Association) staff has slowed, below projected increases”.
If the trend seen before Brexit had continued, there should have been more than 41,000 doctors from the EU or EFTA (Norway, Switzerland, Iceland and Liechtenstein) registered in 2021, or at least 4,000 more than the figure indicated.
“A clear reason for the shift in attitudes around 2015 and 2016 is the campaign and outcome of the EU referendum,” said a study commissioned by The Guardian newspaper.
It cited initial uncertainty over new rules for the movement of people, followed by stricter visa rules and “deteriorating working conditions” in the health system.
“The findings suggest that stagnation in the number of EU doctors in these specialties has exacerbated existing shortages in areas where the NHS has been unable to find enough qualified staff elsewhere,” it added.
The Royal College of Nursing announced last week that its members will take their first strike action in the union’s 106-year history in England and Wales next month, citing pay, conditions – and chronic staff shortages.
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