Status: 11/28/2022 12:08 p.m
Even before Brexit, Great Britain was dependent on health workers from European countries. The exit from the EU makes it more difficult for doctors and nurses to work in the country. According to a study, the resulting gap is larger than expected.
According to a recent study, Brexit has exacerbated the acute shortage of doctors in Great Britain more than expected. According to a study by the Nuffield Trust think tank, more than 4,000 fewer European doctors are currently working in the British healthcare system than was forecast before Brexit. The Guardian newspaper commissioned the study.
The “increase in staff from the EU” and European Free Trade Association (EFTA) countries has “slowed down” and has “fallen below the forecast increase,” the study said. The EFTA countries include Norway, Switzerland, Iceland and Liechtenstein
Greater impact on nursing staff
Last year around 37,000 doctors from European countries worked in the UK. Without Brexit, it would have been almost 41,300, they say. The departments of anesthesia, pediatric medicine, cardiac surgery and psychiatry are particularly affected.
Brexit has an even greater impact on the nursing staff who come to Great Britain from other European countries. There are currently 29,000 nurses – without Brexit, however, it would have been 87,000 according to the forecasts. In the 2021/22 financial year, only about a fourteenth of the EU workers came into the country who still entered the country in 2015/16. However, the number of professionals from other countries such as India and the Philippines increased significantly.
High costs and bureaucracy
The researchers see the “obvious reason for the turnaround in 2015 and 2016” in the outcome of the Brexit referendum. Because of Great Britain’s exit from the EU, skilled workers now need work visas, which are associated with high costs and a great deal of bureaucracy.
The “deteriorating working conditions” in the health system also contributed to the decline. The UK’s NHS health service is chronically underfunded and understaffed. In England alone there is a shortage of more than 10,000 doctors. The British healthcare system was therefore already dependent on staff from the EU before Brexit.
British Department of Health disagrees
However, the British Department of Health rejected the results of the investigation. “This analysis is inaccurate and we do not recognize or agree with its main conclusions,” the Guardian quoted a spokesman for the ministry as saying. On the other hand, “significant progress is being made in the training and recruitment” of medical staff. Accordingly, there should currently be even more staff than in 2016.