Why Brexit won’t be a disaster for hospitals

FOR some while now, I’ve been hearing that Brexit will be a disaster for the NHS because doctors from the EU will not be able to come here to work.

Yet latest figures have shown such fears to be unfounded.

Data from the General Medical Council shows that the number of EU doctors granted a licence to practise in the UK did indeed fall by 8 per cent between January last year and May this year.

However, the number of licences granted to doctors from outside Europe has increased by 17 per cent since the referendum last June.

It is true that the NHS is heavily reliant on staff from overseas to plug gaps in the workforce, with more than one-third coming from overseas.

Certainly, we need to invest properly in training enough doctors and nurses for our needs, rather than stealing them from other countries.

But using our reliance on overseas staff as an argument to remain in the EU doesn’t add up. Just over a quarter of the NHS medical workforce comes from outside the EU — from countries such as India — compared with 10 per cent from the EU. There are as many doctors from India alone working here as from all EU countries put together.

Ironically, it is our membership of the EU that has arguably prevented us from recruiting more doctors from countries such as India. As a result of our inability to control EU immigration, we have made it more difficult for those from outside Europe to work here.

Leaving the EU will mean we have more control of who comes into our country. And if it’s highly skilled migrants, such as doctors, that we want to come here, then that’s precisely who we can give priority to.