UK’s Nurses Shortage Likely to Get Worse After Brexit

The ongoing uncertainty around Brexit poses serious questions for UK’s National Health Service (NHS) workforce planners, given that the NHS already faces funding challenges, increasing demand for its services and a rapidly ageing nursing workforce, according to Rachel Marangozov, the lead author of report on the NHS after Brexit.

MOSCOW (Sputnik) — Nursing resources of the UK’s National Health Service (NHS) are already stretched too thin and will likely reduce further after the country leaves the European Union, a fresh report has found.

The report, released Tuesday by the Institute for Employment Studies, concluded the NHS was in for a perfect storm of fewer nurse training places, aging population that requires more care and post-Brexit risks that threaten to keep EU nurses from coming to work in Britain.

"The ongoing uncertainty around Brexit poses serious questions for NHS workforce planners… given that the NHS already faces funding challenges, increasing demand for its services and a rapidly ageing nursing workforce," Rachel Marangozov, the study’s lead author, said.

In 2014, there was a 7.2-percent shortfall in nursing workforce, with demand rapidly outstripping supply. The Migration Advisory Committee recommended this year that the UK government issue 15,000 visas over the next three years to nurses from outside the European Union to ease pressure on healthcare.

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