THE number of overseas doctors arriving to work in the NHS is at its highest for a generation – accounting for more than half of all new medics.
It comes despite repeated pledges to train more in the UK to help ease the staffing crisis.
The head of the medical watchdog said 10,000 new international doctors will be registered this year – a doubling in just two years.
It is the highest number since 2003.
In comparison, the General Medical Council expects just 7,500 new UK graduates and 2,000 from the EU to join its ranks this year.
The NHS currently has a staffing shortfall of around 100,000 workers.
GMC chief executive Charlie Massey said: “Doctors are in short supply and so demand is high worldwide. Overseas doctors have long played crucial roles in UK health services.”
Last year, the health service imported more new doctors than it trained for the first time since 2006, with 8,115 overseas arrivals.
But only 7,186 medics finished training in Britain in 2018.
Speaking to the Health Service Journal, Mr Massey added: “If the numbers continue to grow as they have done we would expect 19,500 in 2019 of whom 7,500 would come out of UK medical school, 2,000 from Europe and 10,000 international medical graduates.”
Campaigners have previously warned the NHS’ increased reliance on international workers was a “recipe for absolute disaster”.
Surgeon Professor J Meirion Thomas said officials have failed to train enough UK-based medics.
He said: “It is as if the Department of Health have instructed the GMC to open the floodgates for foreign trained doctors as the only solution to workforce planning in the NHS.
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“We are importing doctors… from countries where they were desperately needed. We poached them in order to plug holes in the NHS workforce, now in crisis.”
Although more than 250,000 doctors are now registered to work in the UK for the firsr cent, while those wanting to work in A&E is up four per cent.
Dr Chaand Nagpaul, head of the British Medical Association, said: “While it is encouraging that more doctors are entering training, the numbers are still nowhere near enough to meet patient need.”
