UK ‘poaching’ medics

POOR NATIONS LOSING: OVER 17 000 DOCTORS IN BRITAIN’S NHS FROM SA In 2019, nearly 35% of doctors licensed to practise in UK obtained qualifications overseas.

The UK is being accused of poaching health workers from poorer countries. It’s “insensitive” and “morally questionable”, write two doctors in the South African Medical Journal.

Over 1 700 health workers in the UK’s National Health Service (NHS) said they were South African. The doctors have written a letter in the journal criticising the United Kingdom for hiring a disproportionate number of health workers from foreign countries.

Professor Johannes Fagan from the University of Cape Town and Professor Mahmood Bhutta from the Royal Sussex County Hospital wrote: “The UK has one of the highest proportions and numbers of overseas-qualified doctors.

“UK immigration rules recognise all medical practitioners as shortage occupations and for migrants offered such a post in the NHS grant a reduced visa fee and support with relocation.”

They point out that a recent report by the UK’s General Medical Council (GMC) “suggested that ‘overall numbers will need to rise further’”. The GMC report stated that the UK will require “a continuation of doctors from overseas joining our workforce”.

This position, Fagan and Bhutta, wrote “seems insensitive to the questionable problem of brain drain”.

The authors criticise the yearslong practice of the UK government’s active recruitment of health workers from overseas to fill in the gaps in the British health system. They point out that in 2019, nearly 35% of doctors licensed to practise in the UK had obtained their qualifications overseas.

The House of Commons reported the proportion of non-EU nurses at the NHS rose from 8% in 2015 to 22% between 2019 and last year. (Since nationality is self-reported, it’s possible these numbers are overstated by some people describing their cultural heritage instead of country of birth.)

Fagan and Bhutta refer to a 2006 World Health Organisation report which found that at least 25% of doctors in sub-Saharan Africa had migrated, despite just 5% of the population having access to adequate healthcare.

Fagan drew a distinction between migration and recruiting. “I do have a problem with an active recruitment process that is happening in the UK,” he said.

“We have an agreement with other Southern African Development Community countries not to recruit doctors from there, with the idea of not doing what the UK is doing,” he said. –