Brexit has exacerbated the crisis in Britain’s health sector, with the loss of services of around 4,000 EU doctors in four major specialties, according to a study released Sunday by a health research center.
The study, which was carried out at the initiative of the Guardian newspaper, was published at a time when the National Health Service (NHS) is facing many difficulties after years of austerity, as there are record waiting lists in hospitals due to the epidemic of Covid, but also due to the shortage of doctors and nurses.
The Nuffield Trust looked at four specialties – anaesthesiology, paediatrics, cardiothoracic surgery and psychiatry – where European doctors had a large presence before Brexit.
In these four disciplines, ‘the increase in personnel from EU and EFTA countries (Norway, Iceland, Switzerland and Liechtenstein) has slowed down’, explains the study.
And if the recorded increase had continued before Britain left the European Union, the number of doctors in the European Union and European Free Trade Association countries would have reached 41,000 in 2021, or four thousand more doctors than to registered numbers.
“The campaign and the results of the referendum (conducted in 2016) on leaving the European Union are the obvious reason for this change of direction,” said the Nuffield Trust.
This is due to the uncertainty that prevailed after Brexit regarding the new traffic rules, then the tightening of the rules for granting visas, and finally the “deterioration of working conditions” in general in the health system.
“These findings suggest that the European Union’s stagnating number of doctors in these specialties has exacerbated the current shortage in areas where the NHS is unable to find skilled workers from overseas,” the report adds.
