Post-Brexit reliance on NHS staff from ‘red list’ countries is unethical, Streeting says

One analyst said employing tens of thousands of workers from poorer countries that already had health staffing problems was difficult to justify. Photograph: Jeff Moore/PA

Brexit has left the NHS increasingly dependent on doctors and nurses from poor “red list” countries, from which the World Health Organization says it is wrong to recruit.

The health service in England has hired tens of thousands of health staff from countries such as Nigeria, Ghana and Zimbabwe since the UK left the EU single market at the end of 2020.