Responding to the latest Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) register data report showing a mass exodus of internationally recruited nursing staff and a collapse in international recruitment, RCN Chief Nursing Officer Lynn Woolsey, said: 

“These figures put pressure on Wes Streeting to come up with a 10-year workforce strategy to turn things around. Numbers studying nursing in the UK are falling through the floor and we are going to see a worsening picture as the figures are released.

"The government has been as unethical in stopping international recruitment as its predecessor was in abusing it. This boom and bust approach must end and a strategy that boosts domestic supply and delivers fair treatment for international staff is what's needed. 

“We warned the government that hostile immigration policies and poor pay were driving international staff away and at a time when we couldn’t afford to lose a single nurse. The slowing growth of the UK-trained workforce isn’t coming close to offsetting the number of international recruits leaving. 

“With tens of thousands of vacancies in the NHS and social care this will be a worrying time for patients. It’s a damning indictment of life for a nurse in the UK that physical and mental health problems are among the biggest drivers of people quitting, whilst just one in five would recommend nursing as a career. Delivering better pay and improving working conditions must be urgent priorities for ministers.”

Ends 

Notes to editors 

In the latest Nursing and Midwifery Council register data report, it showed that the number of internationally educated recruits leaving has jumped by 33.3% to 5,276 in the last year, while 8,959 fewer international educated staff joined the register in the same period. During that period, there was a 5.9% increase in the number of UK-trained joiners, down from 11.9% the previous year. This equates to only an extra 1,800 UK joiners in the last year. 

Last month, the RCN published their own survey of over 3,000 internationally educated nursing staff showing that the government’s new immigration measures could ‘accelerate an exodus of migrant staff. It found just under half (42%) are already planning to leave the country, with two thirds of those intending to move to a country other than their home country. Those who planned to leave were asked what would impact their decision to stay in the UK, with 70% selecting salary and 40% selecting immigration policy.