National Health Service

Restored from the Empower Network archive (2011–2017), lightly edited to meet our current advertising standards. Views are the original author’s.

National Health Service

The National Health Service is suffering a “brain drain” of doctors as more medics trained at taxpayers’ expense choose to pursue their careers overseas, according to Financial Times research.

Most go to Australia or New Zealand, say recruiters and doctors’ organizations, and data suggest more now choose to stay longer or settle permanently.http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/5063a2a0-b651-11e1-8ad0-00144feabdc0.html#ixzz24gIhKpeb

Tracking the numbers of medical professionals leaving and returning to the UK is difficult because neither the government nor health industry bodies record that information.

However, the number of certificates of good standing – which the UK’s General Medical Council issues at a doctor’s request and are necessary to take up a post in another country – has risen steadily since records began in 2008. Since then, more than 8,000 people have requested such certificates for Australia and New Zealand alone.

Additionally, the number of Australian permanent visas issued to UK-trained doctors has almost tripled during the past five years, with 645 granted in 2010-11, according to immigration data.

But the lure of an improved lifestyle and better weather, along with higher pay, shorter hours and superior arrangements for professional study, are not the only reasons many are opting for a life abroad.

Many of the young medics have failed to secure jobs in the UK because there are more places in medical schools than jobs available and they are not sufficiently experienced to practice privately.

“In the last few years we’ve seen a general increase in the number of doctors and health professionals from the UK, particularly from Ireland for nursing, particularly from England for doctors,” said Alan Bell, of the Association of Medical Recruiters of Australia and New Zealand.

“A lot come out on the basis they’re not seeing opportunities they want in the UK and come out with the mindset of spending a few years for experience.

“However when they get here, they are generally becoming more ‘Velcroed’. There are no specific data, but anecdotally, we aren’t hearing of large numbers returning.”

Mr Bell’s assessment tallies with a study published in the British Medical Journal in January, investigating the number of UK doctors practicing abroad, and how to attract them back. It found that only three in 10 UK-trained doctors who arrived in New Zealand had originally intended to emigrate permanently, but that number later rose to nine in 10.

Doctors at all levels complain of an overly bureaucratic NHS where they lack control.

Many report extensive “goodwill hours” and coming in on days off, which would breach European Union working time regulations if recorded, and say only family and friends in the UK keep them from making a move abroad.

“One of the things keeps us here is belief in the NHS,” said Tom Dolphin, chairman of the British Medical Association junior doctors’ committee, who said he was aware of many younger trainees that were determined to go.

“Many feel abused by the long hours and there’s the feeling that the NHS is being undermined. That eats away at your faith and that makes people want to leave.”

Between 2008-11, almost 17,000 GMC certificates have been issued to UK doctors applying for jobs worldwide, though not all would have succeeded in winning a foreign post, and individuals may have also requested more than one certificate.

The antipodes are the top destination not only because UK qualifications are recognized – further exams must be taken to work in the US – but also because weighing up salaries, improved tax rates and the cost of living results in a much better deal financially for many.

Medical agencies in Australia and New Zealand said they experienced a surge of interest from young UK-trained doctors this August, when newly qualified doctors started looking for work, but had to turn most away.

“We’ve seen a huge increase in demand from UK doctors at all levels,” said Sam Hazledine, managing director of Medrecruit. “A lot want to come in August and we can’t place all who want to come.”

Figures from the Foundation Programme, the two-year training scheme that forms the bridge between medical school and specialist practice, show that last year 30 per cent did not progress to specialist jobs in the UK at the end of foundation training. Ten per cent of the original cohort took jobs abroad rather than staying to face a protracted job hunt in the UK.

Michael Goldacre, at the University of Oxford, who has researched doctors’ career paths for almost 20 years, said the mismatch between the larger number of posts in medical school and jobs available was a “messy situation”.

“We do hear anecdotally from respondents that lots of their colleagues are thinking of going overseas,” he said.

Bill McMillan, head of medical pay and workforce at the NHS Employers organisation, said: “There are twice as many NHS doctors as there were in the 1990s, which may result in a small increase in the number moving overseas, but the proportions have been remarkably consistent over recent decades.

“NHS doctors who move abroad are broadly balanced by excellent doctors trained overseas who have moved here and deliver quality care to patients.”

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