International recruitment of healthcare professionals
August 2006
Background
Since the establishment of the NHS in 1948, the UK’s medical and nursing professions have relied to a varying extent upon migrant health workers. The extent of this reliance – and of the mobility of health workers themselves – has varied according to labour market requirements.
Recent figures show that net registrations of international doctors in the UK have increased steadily since the onset of the Millennium and are continuing to do so. A significant number of these registrants come from developing countries, particularly sub-Saharan Africa. One reason for the rise in health professionals from abroad is that the UK is currently not training enough doctors: it is estimated that the UK will need, by 2008, 25,000 more doctors and 250,000 more nurses than it did in 1997. (Go to reference 1) Therefore, as a consequence, the late 1990s saw an increase in the active recruitment of health professionals from abroad, and developing countries in the grip of poverty and disease were amongst those which saw large numbers of their health workforce move to the developed world in search of better pay and working conditions.