Brexit has had a significant impact on the National Health Service (NHS) in the UK, resulting in a growing reliance on medical professionals from countries classified as “red list” by the World Health Organization (WHO). These countries have severe deficiencies in healthcare personnel, making them vulnerable to staff recruitment by wealthier nations.
The NHS has hired tens of thousands of healthcare workers from African countries like Nigeria, Ghana, and Zimbabwe since the UK left the EU single market in 2020. This surge in employment of healthcare professionals from red list countries has raised concerns about the moral implications and possible harm to those countries’ healthcare systems.
Figures show that now almost one in every eleven medical professionals working in England is from one of the 55 countries on the WHO red list. The WHO advises against active recruitment from these countries due to the lack of healthcare staff and their inability to provide adequate care to their populations.
The ending of free labor movement for EU nationals has intensified the NHS’s reliance on healthcare workers from these countries. The number of nurses, doctors, and support staff from outside the UK and EU has seen a significant increase, with the NHS now employing over 65,600 staff from red list countries.
Policy analyst Mark Dayan from the Nuffield Trust health think tank stated that recruiting on such a scale from countries with so few healthcare workers is questionable ethically, especially considering Britain’s own failure to train enough medical staff.
Health Secretary Wes Streeting criticized the NHS’s actions as “immoral” and “immoral,” claiming that the Conservative government’s lack of action in training enough NHS staff has led to this situation. He also pointed out the missed opportunities for straight-A students in the UK who are being denied medical school places.
Sebastian Rees, head of health at the IPPR think tank, warned that this over-reliance on foreign staff is both unethical and unsustainable. He highlighted how recruiting from these countries could damage fragile healthcare systems and hinder efforts to provide medical care to those in need.
However, Jim Campbell, WHO’s director of workforce, mentioned that many red-list staff applied directly to the NHS or other high-income countries for job opportunities, making instances of unethical recruitment less common than suggested.
Overall, the NHS’s dependence on healthcare workers from red list countries raises important questions about the global migration of health professionals, and the need for a more sustainable and equitable solution to address the shortage of medical staff worldwide.
Source: https://www.theguardian.com/society/2025/mar/21/post-brexit-reliance-on-nhs-staff-from-red-list-countries-is-unethical-streeting-says
