Doctors are choosing not to come and work in the UK because they are put off by low salaries, the high cost of living and poor quality of life.
Research by the General Medical Council (GMC) shows that doctors who shun the UK are opting to move instead to the United States, Australia and Canada to earn more and have a better life.
Overall, 84% of doctors trained abroad surveyed by the GMC said that other countries were better than Britain at paying good salaries and only 5% felt the opposite was true.
The UK was also seen as being very poor for the cost of living and quality of life, attracting scores of minus 44 and minus 43.
Among doctors considering where to further their careers, the UK scored worse than competitor countries on 14 of the 15 issues the GMC asked them about.
It also recorded negative ratings for being an advanced healthcare system (minus 26), doctors being treated with respect by patients and the public (minus 20), quality of patient care (minus 17) and having enough appropriately qualified staff (minus 17).
The gloomy findings for the UK came as resident doctors – formerly known as junior doctors – in England were voting on whether to launch a renewed six-month campaign of strikes in pursuit of the 29% pay rise their union, the British Medical Association (BMA), claims they deserve.
Consultant doctors will also take part in an indicative ballot to assess their willingness to stage walkouts over pay.
Charlie Massey, the GMC’s chief executive, said its findings were worrying and should spur the NHS to do more to welcome overseas-trained doctors and improve their working conditions, in order to avoid the shortages of medics which many hospitals and GP practices face.
“This research showed that issues of concern to doctors who are considering a move to the UK reflect much of what we hear from doctors who are working here now,” he said.
“It is concerning, as these factors impact on retention as well as recruitment. The UK is envied for the way it trains doctors, but there is room for improvement and we shouldn’t assume that will always continue.”
The NHS in England has recruited even larger numbers of doctors from elsewhere in recent years than usual. Last year 36% of all doctors there were non-UK nationals, up from 26.6% in 2016.
The GMC, which regulates the medical profession in the UK, found that the UK scored highly among doctors from abroad because they find it easy to register to practise, navigate the immigration system and find a job compared with other places.
Its findings are based on an online survey of 3,092 doctors in other countries. Of those, 2,556 came to the UK and joined the GMC’s medical register and 536 opted to move elsewhere.
The research, which probed what motivates doctors to choose which country to move to, found that some foreign doctors got disillusioned and quit the UK soon after moving there.
“Among doctors who have recently practised in the UK (since 2021) but have since left, many left sooner than they had intended to. Half of these doctors ended up practising in the UK for less than a year, when only 15% had this intention,” it said.
“Those who had left were disappointed with the UK in terms of colleagues and the friendliness of staff, adhering to different guidelines and standards, the bureaucracy and work culture/ethics.’
Dr Latifa Patel, the BMA’s workforce lead, said: “The NHS is faced with a bizarre double-whammy of international medical graduates not wanting to work here due to low salaries, high cost of living, and poor quality of life, meanwhile UK trained doctors working in the NHS are feeling forced out the door to find roles in other countries where both their pay and quality of life are better.”
Wes Streeting, the health secretary, has criticised the NHS for being too reliant on foreign doctors, nurses and midwives, and not hiring enough homegrown health professionals.
He recently castigated as “immoral” NHS recruitment of staff from World Health Organization-designated “red list” countries, which are poor and have less developed health systems.