Dr Thomas Peukert from Germany, consultant neurologist at the Royal Victoria hospital in Belfast
“I feel like I’ve become a second-class citizen because of Brexit. My employer, the Belfast health and social care trust, has encouraged me to apply for settled status so that I can stay on after Brexit.
“But when I asked them if that would guarantee that I could still work in the UK and have the same rights as UK employees they couldn’t give me the reassurance I wanted, so I decided not to apply for settled status – because I don’t want to be a second-class citizen.
“I wanted to know if I would keep my current rights, such as the right to vote. Would I still be able to apply for jobs within the Belfast trust, or would British passport-holders be given preference? I also wanted to know if I went to Dubai, America or Australia for a year, to undertake research – an option I wanted to leave open – could I come back?
“But no one seems to know what settled status actually means; that is, what rights people from EU countries would or wouldn’t have. But it’s not the trust’s fault. The real problem is the uncertainty about Brexit caused by politicians.
“So I am applying to the Medical Council in the Republic of Ireland for permission to work there, to give me that option if Brexit goes ahead. My wife Joanne already works as a lecturer in physiotherapy in Limerick three days a week. If there was a hard border then it could take her even longer than the current four to five hours to drive down there.
“I don’t want to move to the Republic. I’ve worked in Northern Ireland since I graduated in 1999, and I enjoy the place and my job. But because of the uncertainty about my future status I may feel obliged to leave and go there, if I feel uncomfortable to stay here and lose rights that I have at the moment, such as the right to travel. I don’t want to live in a country for 20 years and suddenly feel like a second-class citizen.
“There are quite a lot of other Europeans working at the Royal Victoria hospital, as doctors, nurses, auxiliaries, porters and in the kitchen. Since the Brexit referendum in June 2016 three or four EU doctors have left because they felt that they weren’t welcome.
“It’s a feeling that anyone who’s European and working here will know at the moment. The atmosphere has changed a bit. It’s less friendly now. People in Northern Ireland are still very nice, if not as welcoming as before.
“I’m a headache specialist; the only one in the Belfast trust. The uncertainty created by Brexit is very frustrating because it means that I can’t make plans to improve the service.
“Also, I run a clinic once a week where I treat patients by giving them an injection, using a facial nerve block. I’m the only doctor in Northern Ireland who can do this. If I leave those patients will have to travel over to Liverpool or London to have it, so they would be inconvenienced by that, plus the trust would have to pay for that.
“I have a big decision to make, whether to stay or go. I might move to the Republic. It’s 50/50 if I do that. I want to live in a country where I have the same rights as anyone else.”
Dr Alexia Tsigka from Greece, consultant histopathologist at the Norfolk and Norwich University hospital NHS foundation trust in Norwich
“I came here in 2012 after working at a cancer hospital in Athens. My husband, Georgios, and I chose Britain for several reasons. We had lived abroad before and wanted to do so again and when the problems began in Greece after the crash in 2008 that gave us the extra push we needed.
“I could speak English, I knew my skills – analysing human tissue – could be utilised somewhere else, plus my qualifications were automatically recognised because of an EU-wide agreement. Georgios is a software engineer so we knew he would get work here too.
“Also, we thought our son’s future would be better in another country, given the uncertainty Greece was facing after the crash. And Greece’s health system is modelled on the NHS and some of my colleagues there had worked here before.
“We thought we were coming to a country that was open, diverse, multicultural and definitely tolerant. But I’m not convinced any more that I had the right impression of how open a society Britain is. I thought it had a long history of immigrants successfully assimilating into British life. But now I’m sceptical.
“It doesn’t seem to be a tolerant country, given a majority voted to leave the EU. I felt welcomed when I came here, but worry that Europeans will no longer feel comfortable if Brexit happens. I’m shocked that a country that until now has made me feel so comfortable voted for Brexit.
“I’m sad, frustrated and worried about what might happen to myself, my family, my patients and the NHS itself in the future as a result of Brexit. Will it make it harder for me to visit my relatives in other European countries if I stay in Britain? Will it prove harder for Georgios to find work?
“We love Britain, which has been our home for the last seven years. We’ve made good friends and find Norfolk very friendly. But I’m worried that Britain may become less open and less tolerant, and affect society on different levels. Might I be discriminated against because I have an accent? If Brexit had been occuring in 2012 I wouldn’t have considered moving to the UK.
“I had a bitter experience in Greece, when the financial problems became very serious, and I don’t want to see that repeated in Britain as a result of Brexit. Having experienced insecurity in my home country I don’t want my family and I to have to go through anything like that again.
“Britain should be very proud of the NHS, but I worry about its future, especially where its staff will come from. Doctors I know in Greece are less willing to come here now.
“After the 2008 crash was an awful time for Greece’s health system. Free prescriptions stopped; people had to pay 25% of the cost of their prescriptions, because the health budget was cut. In my opinion that could easily happen in the UK if the country finds itself in extreme financial difficulty due to Brexit.
“Budget cuts in Greece meant hospitals experienced shortages, even of items like gloves and toilet paper, because they couldn’t pay suppliers on time. There were drug shortages too, including of chemotherapy drugs. It was harder for patients to get expensive treatments such as radiotherapy.
“And when equipment such as MRI scanners broke down, hospitals couldn’t afford expensive replacement parts, so patients ended up not getting their scans for months. Any of these things can happen in the NHS during Brexit trouble.
“Some EU NHS staff have gone for settled status. But I don’t consider settled status to be irrevocable; I believe that it could be revoked in the future. I wouldn’t feel safe being in the UK on settled status.
“That’s a big change for me, because I’ve been able to be here since 2012 as a European citizen. I’m not sure settled status does secure people’s future in the UK. So we are applying for UK citizenship as a way of securing our future here, especially for our son, who is 15.”
Dr Rafal Dworakowski from Poland, a consultant cardiologist at King’s College hospital in London
“I was shocked when the Brexit vote happened because I never believed so many people wanted Britain not to be in the EU. Brexit hit me strongly because I feel European, strongly believe in one Europe and like the EU.
I’m Polish and I remember how isolated Poland was before it joined the EU in 2004. I remember the borders that we had to get across and how difficult it was in my childhood to travel between Eastern and western Europe.
“I liked working in the NHS from as soon as I joined it in 2006. My wife, Dorota, an endocrinologist, and I both like living in London, especially its multicultural flavour, which was a big reason for coming. But when the Brexit vote happened I felt heartbroken. Brexit broke my ideas about life.
“The atmosphere in this country is no longer welcoming to immigrants like me. I’m upset about that and disappointed. Brexit has brought to the surface some views I thought people here didn’t harbour.
“We used to have dinner quite regularly with one of our neighbours, an educated gentleman. But once after Brexit he said to me: ‘It will be OK. You’re white, Catholic and a doctor – but maybe all these other people shouldn’t be coming to this country.’ For me that showed that Britain was not the open country I’d imagined it to be. It made me think that I had misjudged Britain.
“I’ve spent more of my professional life in the UK than in Poland so I feel more bound to the NHS than the Polish healthcare system. I have a home here and two jobs, as I’m also a lecturer at King’s College London. But I don’t feel as welcome here as I did. Society here is divided. It’s upsetting that people voted for Brexit and to not feel as welcome here.
“I’m worried about what might happen to the NHS after Brexit, especially its workforce, as it is already understaffed. I work as part of a very international team in the cardiology department at King’s College hospital. Some of the doctors and nurses are from Spain, Greece, Sweden, the Philippines and Africa. But several EU doctors at King’s have left because of Brexit and gone to work instead in Italy, Germany and Saudi Arabia.
“I still hope that Brexit doesn’t happen. Brexit hasn’t changed the place I work in. But in society, outside the hospital, there’s just a feeling that you aren’t wanted. A lot of Poles in Britain have already gone back to Poland. In my daughter’s Polish class three or four of the families of the 24 kids have already gone home, because they didn’t agree with Brexit and didn’t feel wanted here.
“At the moment I’m weighing up my options what to do: either to stay here and accept Brexit or go back to Poland. Or I might go and work in another EU country; I could easily get a job there if I did. I’m leaving it open. But I’m in a situation that I would rather not be in.”
