THE NHS would have long been lost without foreign doctors, said their union after a new survey warned its workforce faces “huge holes” if more quit Britain due to anti-migrant political rhetoric.

A General Medical Council (GMC) report has revealed a shocking 26 per cent rise in the numbers of doctors who trained abroad leaving the workforce — from 3,869 in 2023 to 4,880 last year.

Doctors who qualified abroad make up around 42 per cent of the service’s workforce currently but even a small percentage increase in the numbers leaving will result in “huge holes” the NHS will struggle to fill, said GMC chief executive Charlie Massey.

He said: “Doctors represent a mobile workforce, whose skills are in high demand around the world. 

“Any hardening of rhetoric and falling away of support could undermine the UK’s image as somewhere the brightest and the best from all over the world want to work.

“It is vital that workforce policies do not inadvertently demoralise or drive out the talent on which our health services depend.”

It comes after health leaders warned that St George’s flags are creating “no-go zones” for NHS staff, with some facing frequent abuse.

Speaking last week about resident doctors going on strike, Health Secretary Wes Streeting said he was proposing changes to improve doctors’ lives, including more training places and changes to international recruitment.

Yesterday, British Medical Association representative body chair Dr Amit Kochhar said: “Doctors who trained abroad have long made up a significant sector of the NHS workforce, and medical care in the UK would have long since withered away without them.”

He warned that “far fewer international doctors are finding work within six months of passing their PLAB [language proficiency] test, raising the possibility that we are giving doctors abroad false hope that opportunities exist which simply aren’t there.

First-year doctors this month have been on strike in protest at the absurdly low number of training places for doctors. 

“If successive governments can’t plan to train the medical workforce we need and can’t attract doctors who trained abroad, who exactly do they expect will be treating patients in the future?

“We must not leave doctors in a vice between a hostile environment and an insecure career.”