Hardening of anti-immigrant rhetoric in society could drive more foreign doctors away from a “less welcoming” UK, the General Medical Council warns.

Its warning comes as new data show an increasing number of internationally trained medical graduates leaving the UK health workforce. A continuation of this trend would create “huge holes” in the NHS workforce that the service would struggle to fill, the GMC said.

The regulator’s annual workforce report, 1 published on 21 November, highlighted that 4880 doctors who obtained their primary medical qualification in another country and who had been working in the UK left in 2024—a 26% increase on the 3869 who left in 2023.

This was the first major year-on-year rise since the pandemic, with the GMC noting that only 3968 non-UK qualified doctor

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