New official data has revealed a startling collapse in the number of overseas-trained nurses and midwives choosing to work in the United Kingdom, with recruitment numbers halving in just one year.
Sharp Decline in International Registrations
The Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) has published workforce figures showing that between April and September this year, only 6,321 nurses and midwives from abroad joined the UK register. This represents a drastic fall when compared to the 12,534 international professionals who registered in the same period in 2024.
At the same time, the data indicates that more international staff are now choosing to leave Britain, compounding the recruitment crisis. Health organisations have immediately warned that this double blow of falling arrivals and rising departures will severely hamper the already understaffed National Health Service, inevitably leading to longer waiting times for patients.
Racism and Rule Changes Blamed for Exodus
NHS staff groups and experts point to a rising tide of hostility towards migrants and recent hardline government changes to immigration rules as the primary reasons behind the UK's declining appeal. Health Secretary Wes Streeting recently stated that NHS staff were enduring the brunt of what he described as a return to "ugly" 1970s and 1980s-style racism in Britain.
The Labour government has extended the time overseas workers must wait before applying for indefinite leave to remain or claiming benefits from five years to ten. Critics argue this move panders to anti-immigration sentiment. Louie Horne, Unison's national nursing officer, said: "For decades, nurses and midwives from around the world have brought invaluable skills to the NHS. This exposes the damage being inflicted by the government’s unfair and ill-conceived immigration changes."
Recruitment from Key Nations Dries Up
The downturn has hit recruitment from the UK's most important supplier nations particularly hard:
- Registrations from India, which supplies the most foreign nurses to the NHS, fell by 58%.
- Arrivals from the Philippines dropped by 68%.
- Numbers from Nigeria decreased by 28%.
- Registrations from Ghana were down 9%.
Paul Rees, the NMC's chief executive and registrar, stated plainly: "The high-growth era of international recruitment appears to be ending." The regulator also noted that overseas staff may be opting for other countries offering higher salaries, or are responding to the NHS's own drive to recruit more UK-trained staff.
Despite the alarming international trends, the total number of nurses, midwives and nursing associates on the NMC register has reached a record high of 860,801. A record 96,593 (12%) of these are men.
Suzie Bailey, an NHS workforce expert at the King's Fund thinktank, issued a stark warning: "The dramatic fall in international nurse and midwife recruitment and retention should be sounding alarm bells for politicians, health and care leaders and people who rely on health and care services." This pattern mirrors a similar plateau in recruitment and a rise in departures among overseas-trained doctors, as recently reported by the General Medical Council.
