A letter has been published in the BMJ titled ‘International doctors need an inclusive workplace and career development’.

International doctors need an inclusive workplace and career development | The BMJ

Co-workers’ support is essential for international colleagues helping to run the NHS. But good employment practices to ensure an inclusive work environment and career development are key to sustaining and retaining them.

Currently, one in six NHS staff is of non-British nationality; this ratio is one in three among doctors and one in four among nurses. Doctors and nurses from Asian and African countries are the largest group among new international recruits in the NHS. Against the stereotype of junior roles, the most rapid increase in international recruits has been in middle grade doctors—specialty and associated specialty (SAS) and locally employed (LE) doctors. International doctors accounted for 53% of this workforce in the NHS in 2021. SAS and LE doctors deliver essential medical care, but between 2013 and 2021 over half of these doctors left the UK. If this trend persists, it will put great pressure on the NHS medical workforce…