UK NHS, Public Sector Face Staff Shortages Over Lack Of EU Migrant Workers - Reports

The United Kingdom is currently facing law staff numbers in both the National Health Service (NHS) and public sector due to the lack of EU migrants coming to work in the country, media reported on Tuesday.

MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 11th December, 2018) The United Kingdom is currently facing law staff numbers in both the National Health Service (NHS) and public sector due to the lack of EU migrants coming to work in the country, media reported on Tuesday.

According to The Guardian newspaper, citing a poll conducted by recruitment company ManpowerGroup among 2,102 employers in nine industry sectors, recruiting intentions indicators in the UK public sector are currently at their highest level since 2011. Some 8 percent of public sector employers are planning to increase staff numbers in the first three months of 2019, the newspaper continued.

In November, the National Institute of Economic and Social Research announced that in the 12 months since the Brexit referendum, the number of workers from EU countries who got a job in the NHS had decreased by 17.6 percent, while the number of those who left the service increased by 15.

3 percent.

The NHS has long been struggling with funding cuts and increased pressure on hospitals, which have led to staff shortages and longer lines and delays in receiving treatment in what has been dubbed a health crisis by the opposition and watchdogs.

In June, UK Prime Minister Theresa May said that the NHS would get an extra 20 billion Pounds ($27 billion) by 2023, which would be partly funded by a so-called Brexit dividend available once London stops making considerable payments to the EU budget.

In the meantime, one of the major implications of Brexit on the UK health system is supposed to be a loss of staff from the European Economic Area (EEA). UK media reported in April that almost 4,000 nurses and midwives from the EEA had left the United Kingdom in 2017, and only 800 had arrived.