JAPA: UK doctors lured abroad by sun, triple salaries shun chance to come home

DAILY STAR

Half the doctors who ditched Britain for Australia following a sizzling salary, sun and Sheilas recruitment campaign are ‘unlikely and unwilling’ to return to the NHS.

The General Medical Council said the UK is losing thousands of medics every year to foreign countries offering better pay and work-life balance.

More than 4,800 moved to places like Australia and New Zealand over the past year. Recruiters are hoping to capitalise on ongoing strike action misery to snare more.

While the UK medical workforce is growing it heavily relies on recruitment from overseas. Nearly a third of Brit-based doctors are foreign-trained. But officials say many home-grown medics are now heading abroad.

More than half of doctors who have left the UK register told an official General Medical Council survey they were both unlikely and unwilling to come back.

Billy Palmer, senior fellow at the Nuffield Trust health think-tank, said: “We’ve benefited hugely from recruiting medical staff from abroad. But the tables have turned.”