NHS urged to stop recruiting foreign doctors

Wes Streeting, the UK's Health Secretary, has called for the NHS to stop "plundering" foreign countries for doctors. He emphasized the need to train more British medical professionals instead. Streeting described the current practice of relying heavily on overseas recruitment as “morally unacceptable.” At a recent event, he acknowledged that while the NHS benefits from an international workforce, it should not depend on recruiting from nations that require their own medical staff. He highlighted the "red list" countries, identified by the World Health Organization, as locations where recruitment is particularly concerning. This list includes Ghana, Zimbabwe, and Nigeria. The NHS has been increasing its recruitment from these red list countries, especially after Brexit. Currently, about 65,610 staff in the NHS come from these nations, which is a significant part of their total workforce of 1.5 million. Since early 2021, nearly 33,000 of these have been hired. This means that 9% of all doctors in England are now from red list countries, with a large percentage of new nurses also trained abroad. Streeting stated that the government is committed to training more local talent and to reducing recruitment from these nations in the future.