Plans to cut NHS international workforce appear overambitious, say MPs

Thirty-six per cent of UK doctors and 24% of nurses and midwives were trained elsewhere in the world. Photograph: Jeff Moore/PA Media

Ministers’ plans to cut the international workforce within NHS England appear overambitious, MPs have said, as a report reveals the health service saved more than £14bn by recruiting doctors, nurses and midwives from overseas.

Many of the countries recruited from were struggling with staff shortages, and the UK had a moral duty to offer support, rather than simply extracting what it needed, the all-party parliamentary group (APPG) on global health and security found.