Over 4,000 European doctors left UK's health services after Brexit: Research

More than 4,000 European doctors have decided not to work with UK's National Health Service (NHS), worsening the country's shortage of doctors after Brexit, recent research said.

There are four specialties, including anesthetist, pediatric, cardiothoracic surgery, and psychiatry, with known ongoing recruitment and retention issues, where staffing data also show a proportionately high number of staff from the EU and the European Free Trade Association (EFTA) countries before Brexit, according to the research published on Sunday by the Nuffield Trust.

In 2021, a total of 37,035 European doctors were working in the UK, the stats showed, 4,285 lower than the projected number of 41,321 if Brexit did not happen.

"The findings suggest that stagnation in the number of EU doctors in these specialties has exacerbated existing shortages in areas where the NHS has not been able to find enough qualified staff elsewhere," the research said. "While deeper research into drivers of migration is needed, it appears likely that the decision to leave the EU in 2016 plays a role."