(LONDON) Brexit has worsened the shortage of doctors in the United Kingdom, leading to an estimated shortfall of 4,000 doctors from the European Union in four major specialties, according to a study published on Sunday by a think tank specialized in health. .
This study, carried out at the initiative of the daily The Guardianis published as the public health system (NHS) suffers many difficulties after years of austerity, with record waiting lists in hospitals due to the COVID-19 pandemic, but also shortages of doctors and of nurses.
The Nuffield Trust looked at four specialties – anaesthesia, paediatrics, cardiothoracic surgery and psychiatry – in which European doctors were particularly represented before the UK’s exit from the EU.
In these four specialties, already experiencing tension in their recruitment, “the increase in staff from the EU or countries of the European Free Trade Association (EFTA, namely Norway, Iceland, Switzerland and Liechtenstein) has slowed “, shows the study.
If the pre-Brexit trend had continued, there should have been more than 41,000 EU and EFTA doctors registered in 2021, at least 4,000 more than the numbers actually seen.
For the Nuffield Trust, “the campaign and the result of the (2016) referendum on leaving the EU is the obvious reason for this change in trend”.
In question: initially the uncertainty about the new rules for the movement of people, then the tightening of the rules for granting visas, and finally a “deterioration of working conditions” in general in the health system.
“These results suggest that the stagnation in the number of doctors from the EU in these specialties has exacerbated existing shortages in areas where the NHS is unable to find skilled labor elsewhere,” adds the director. ‘study.