NHS crisis as Brexit scares off EU nurses

96% drop fuels staff shortage

THE number of EU nurses registering to work in the UK has dropped by 96% since the Brexit vote, plunging the NHS into its worst staffing crisis in 20 years.

EU registrants fell from 1,304 last July to 344 in September, and by April the number was down to just 46, data obtained from the Nursing and Midwifery Council has revealed. Experts said the situation was “bleak and looking to get bleaker”, as the NHS tries to tackle a shortage of 30,000 nurses in England alone. The figures emerged as part of a study into the NHS workforce for the Health Foundation by Anita Charlesworth and Professor Jim Buchan. Prof Buchan, of Queen Margaret University in Edinburgh, said: “It is a crash. Clearly something happened in that period, and that something was most likely the Brexit vote and the uncertainty it created. It has led to a change in the choices being made by EU nurses and midwives. Nurses from the EU are no longer registering in the same numbers.” He said increases in “non-eu nurse inflows” had not been enough to offset the decrease from EU nurses. He said: “We are looking at an increasingly tough situation for recruitment. It is more problematic now than at any time in the past 20 years and the forward view is more worrying than the current situation.” Anita Charlesworth, the director of research and economics at the Health Foundation, said: “The findings should be a wake-up call to politicians and health service leaders. “The chronic shortage of nurses is the result of years of short-term planning and cuts to training places. A sustainable approach is needed.” Shadow Health Secretary Jonathan Ashworth said the Tories were overseeing a “drain of talent” with their “chaotic attitude to Brexit”.