New EU nurse registrations tumble after Brexit vote

● Warning recruitment of nurses is one of biggest challenges facing health care

The number of nurses from European Union countries registering to practise in the UK has plummeted by 96 per cent since the Brexit referendum, new figures have revealed.

Just 46 nurses from the EU registered in April – down from 1,304 in July last year, just weeks after the Brexit vote.

The figures, obtained through a Freedom of Information enquiry to the Nursing and Midwifery Council by the Health Foundation, showed that by September 2016 the number of new registrants had fallen to 344.

Many EU citizens are concerned about whether they will be allowed to remain in the UK after Brexit.

Anita Charlesworth, director of research and economics at the Health Foundation said: “The recruitment and retention of nurses is one of the biggest challenges facing health and social care.

“The drop in EU nurses registering to work in the UK could not be more stark – just 46 registered to work in the UK in April. Without EU nurses it will be even harder for the NHS and other employers to find the staff they need to provide safe patient care. The findings should be a wake-up call to politicians and health

0 Just 46 nurses from the EU registered in April service leaders.” She added: “Clearly action is needed to offset any further loss of EU nursing staff in the near future.

“But the overall shortage of 30,000 nurses is not a shortage caused by the Brexit vote. The chronic shortage of nurses is the result of years of shortterm planning and cuts to training places.”

A Department of Health spokeswoman insisted that EU nurses played a “valued” role in the NHS and said they would be a priority in Brexit negotiations.

Scotland’s Health Secretary Shona Robison said: “This shows the real damage that Brexit already poses to our NHS and demonstrates this is why it is vital that Scotland remains in the single market.”

SNP MSP Clare Haughey, who is deputy convener of Holyrood’s Health and Sport committee and a registered mental health nurse, said: “These figures are absolutely staggering – and they follow warnings from doctors’ leaders about the dangers Brexit poses to the NHS. To see nursing applications from the EU fall by 96 per cent in under a year shows once more how dangerous this Tory government is for our health service.”

Scottish Conservative shadow health secretary Donald Cameron said: “The SNP is not in a position to lecture anyone on nursing levels. Its repeated failure to plan for the future has left wards across the country struggling.”