Responding to the NMC UK Register mid-year update showing a nearly 50% collapse in the number of new international professionals joining the Register compared to the same time last year, RCN Chief Nursing Officer Lynn Woolsey said: 

“This data shows the nursing profession is potentially entering the worst of all worlds. International recruitment is collapsing, even before further hostile immigration policies come in, while the number of domestic joiners continues to stall. At a time of already widespread nursing staff shortages, with tens of thousands of nursing jobs remaining unfilled, the dashboard is flashing red for the future of services and patient care. 

“At the current rate, the numbers of domestic nurses joining will nowhere near make up for the collapse in overseas nursing staff coming to the UK. Ministers need to wake up. If they continue to push overseas nursing staff out the door and make the UK an unattractive destination, while doing next to nothing to invest and grow the domestic workforce, their reforms will die before the ink is dry. 

“We now need to see a serious, detailed and fully funded plan to grow the domestic workforce and an end to the pursuit of hostile immigration policies. This lack of joined up thinking in the heart of government cannot continue if we are to solve the many crises facing the NHS and social care and assure its future.” 

 Ends