Since the Brexit announcement, fewer foreign workers have joined the NHS, and departures are on the rise. Authorities fear a shortage of nurses.
Concerns surround the professional future of many workers across the Channel. This is the case in the City, the financial center of London. Following the Brexit announcement, banks have already announced – or carried out – a transfer of part of their staff to other European places. The British health system (NHS) is also at risk of being affected by the United Kingdom’s exit from the European Union (EU).
The BBC analyzed the evolution of NHS membership since 2015, and noted a worrying trend. Foreign staff from the EU are shrinking: the island attracts less and less, and more and more European residents are packing their bags.
The NHS struggles to recruit
In 2015, 5.6% of staff leaving the NHS were represented by EU nationals. Since the start of 2017, they are 7.4%. At the same time, fewer Europeans join the various health establishments. In two years, their proportion has decreased from 10 to 8%.
“This analysis now confirms the anecdotes reported by our members, especially in the south-east of the country,” comments Danny Mortimer, of the Cavendish Coalition, representing British healthcare organizations. Our members are struggling to recruit. “
This trend is even more marked among nurses, who represented 7.6% of departures in 2015, and 11.5% in 2017. According to information from the BBC, some recruitment units in Europe have even ceased their activities, due to a lack of responses.
Nurses on the front line
Several reasons can explain this lack of attractiveness, according to the experts interviewed. Concerns about the UK’s economic future, sure, but not only. The prospect of staff shortages could compound the shortage, in a sort of self-fulfilling prophecy. The increasingly disadvantageous exchange rate between the pound and the euro decreases the financial interest of Europeans to come and work on the island. New conditions for recruiting foreign nurses, particularly with regard to fluency in English, could also have played a role.
“During the Brexit negotiations, Theresa May must reassure nurses from across Europe that the NHS needs them, and that it will welcome them with open arms,” said Janet Davies, director of the Royal College of Nursing, the equivalent of the Order of Nurses. He would not survive without their contribution. “
Concern about the quality of care
This analysis by the British media comes days after the publication of an annual report by the Commission on Quality of Care (CQC), in which experts worry about shortages of NHS staff. They point out in particular a 16% increase in staff shortages in just two years, despite a 4% increase in staff.
Occupancy of hospital beds is on the rise, and the NHS suffers from a growing shortage of home nurses: in the same period, their number has fallen by 4,000, as demand, which accompanies the epidemic of disease chronic, is on the rise.
“We will have to deal with a fall in the quality of services offered to patients, and this could even mean that the safety of some of them could be compromised”, worries Sir David Behan, director of the CQC.
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