In the past six years, nearly 2,000 Portuguese nurses have left the British professional register, and only about 500 have applied to work in the United Kingdom, according to the British regulatory authority.
The data was released by the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) on Wednesday [Conselho de Enfermagem e Obstetrícia] The number of Portuguese-trained nurses registered in the UK has fallen by 21.8%, from 5,262 registered in March 2017 to 4,055 in March 2022.
During this period, 553 people registered, but 1,908 canceled their registration, which is mandatory to work in the United Kingdom, although not all of those who registered were working.
The NMC explained that the numbers may not match because the data on new members only includes those joining the register for the first time and not those who have interrupted their professional activity.
This negative balance was also verified in the registers of other European nurses, namely Spaniards, Italians and Romanians, who were employed in large numbers by the British Public Health Service (NHS) before the United Kingdom left the European Union (EU).
Conversely, the number of professionals from India, Kenya, Jamaica, Guyana, Zimbabwe, Botswana or Ghana has risen in recent years, reflecting the predominance of recruitment outside the EU.
Overall, the NMC registered 52,148 new members, half of whom were non-British, and the number of professionals leaving the register fell.
But a report released this Wednesday indicates that more than half of nurses have left the profession earlier than expected and most do not intend to return.
“While recruitment is strong, there are clear warnings about pressures in the workplace that are driving people out of the professions,” NMC chief executive Andrea Sutcliffe said.
Reasons for unsubscribing included fatigue or burnout, lack of peer support, concerns about the quality of care provided to people, workload and staffing levels.
Labor has criticized the use of experts from countries on the World Health Organization’s “red list”, which seeks to discourage the recruitment of doctors, nurses and midwives in developing countries where health services are deficient.
“The NHS will always be an international workforce and that is part of its strength. But the Conservatives’ approach is unfair to the countries they come from and to British students who are denied a better NHS life,” criticized Rep Wes Streeting.
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