A record number of overseas-trained doctors are leaving the UK, with hostility towards migrants blamed for a 26% rise in departures that threatens to create huge gaps in NHS staffing. Figures from the General Medical Council (GMC) show that 4,880 doctors who qualified abroad left the UK in 2024, up from 3,869 the previous year.
NHS leaders, senior doctors and the GMC have warned that increased denigration and abuse of migrants is a significant factor driving the exodus. Daniel Elkeles, chief executive of NHS Providers, said: “It’s really worrying that so many highly skilled and highly valued international doctors the NHS just can’t afford to lose are leaving in their droves.” Dr Amit Kochhar, chair of the British Medical Association’s representative body, added that a “sustained campaign of anti-migrant rhetoric” is leaving many doctors with a migrant background reconsidering their future in the UK.
The rise in departures coincides with a plateau in new arrivals. The GMC’s annual report shows that 20,060 overseas doctors joined the UK medical register in 2024, only slightly more than the 19,629 in 2023 and the smallest increase since 2020. The NHS relies heavily on international doctors, with 42% of its medical workforce having qualified overseas.
GMC chief executive Charlie Massey said doctors are a “mobile workforce” with global demand for their skills. “Internationally qualified doctors who have historically chosen to work in the UK could quite conceivably choose to leave if they feel they have no future job progression here, or if the country feels less welcoming,” he said. The GMC report also notes that only one in eight newly registered overseas doctors secured an NHS post within six months in 2024, down from one in five in 2023 and one in four in 2022.
Health Secretary Wes Streeting has voiced alarm over a return to 1970s and 1980s-style racism, with NHS staff bearing the brunt of abuse. The Royal College of Nursing recently highlighted a surge in racist abuse against nurses. The GMC warns that workforce policies must not inadvertently drive out the talent on which health services depend.
