Your report on the 93% fall in overseas nurses (Drop in overseas workers is ‘car crash’ for UK hospitals and care homes, say experts, 26 February) lays bare how dependent the UK has become on international recruitment. When visa policy shifts can trigger warnings of an “impending car crash”, it shows a workforce model built on fragility, not resilience.
For years, the UK – like other high-income countries – has relied on internationally educated nurses to fill domestic shortages. That may have eased immediate pressures, but it masked chronic underinvestment in training, pay and retention at home. Tightening migration without first building self-sufficiency simply exposes that failure.
