Concerns have been raised about the UK’s overreliance on overseas nurses and midwives after new figures suggest that a significant number of new workers come from abroad. Almost half (48%) of the 48,436 people who joined the nursing and midwifery workforce in the last year have come from different countries, with the vast majority (66%) coming from India and the Philippines.
Leading nurses questioned how sustainable it is to “recruit half of all new nurses from around the world”. It comes as the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) released it annual figures on the numbers of nurses and midwives registered to work in the UK.
While the figures suggest an overall increase in the number of staff – with some 758,300 now registered to work in Britain – concerns have been raised about the rising number of people leaving the register. A total of 27,133 people left the NMC register in 2021/22 – 13% more than the year before.
