Remainerism still breathing...

Latest Graun prod in the creeping campaign to do something Remainerish -- Swiss deal? Norway again?Full rejoin?

Brexit has worsened shortage of NHS doctors, analysis shows

Exclusive: More than 4,000 European medics have chosen not to work in NHS since Britain left EU, data reveals

 

Official figures show the NHS in England alone has vacancies for 10,582 physicians.[That is,overall] ...Britain has 4,285 fewer European doctors than if the rising numbers who were coming before the Brexit vote in 2016 had been maintained [NB!] since then, according to analysis by the Nuffield Trust health thinktank which it has shared with the Guardian....a “slowdown” in medical recruitment from the EU and the EFTA quartet [NB!] of Norway, Iceland, Switzerland and Lichtenstein....longstanding [NB!] doctor shortages – anaesthetics, children, psychiatry, and heart and lung treatment – failing to keep up with a demand for care heightened by Covid and an ageing population [NB].

Not just EU medics then, but a general shortage, a 'slowdown' which includes EFTA countries, a background of 'longstanding shortages', and a 'heightening' due to Covid and an ageing population.

The background is the general campaign to reintroduce cheap migrant labour from the EU that has bubbling under for a while:

The findings come amid calls from business leaders for ministers to rethink how immigration into Britain works to help overcome economy-wide labour shortages. These have deepened in recent years, partly as a result of the UK ending automatic free movement for EU nationals. The Confederation of British Industry has been particularly vocal in that demand.

While we are here:

Brexit has had a far more damaging effect on the NHS’s ability to hire nurses from the EU. While 9,389 nurses and midwives who had trained in the bloc came to work in Britain in 2015-16, only 663 did so in 2021-22, data released by the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) in May showed. However, that dramatic drop has been offset by a huge rise in the number of those professionals coming from the rest of the world, notably India and the Philippines, the regulator said

This has been discussed before,and another factor was the increased number of jobs available in the bloc as their economies picked up

Research published in March 2021 * found Brexit had left many European doctors already in the UK feeling unwelcome, alienated and insecure about their future working lives in Britain....A spokesperson said: “This analysis is inaccurate and we don’t recognise or agree with its key conclusions. We are making significant progress in training and recruiting a record number of nurses, doctors and healthcare professionals. There are over 9,000 more nurses working in the NHS and there are over 26,000 more hospital doctors now than in 2016.”

 * The research is a beauty:

Fifty-nine doctors participated in the questionnaire with 52 (88.1%) providing one or more responses to the three free-text questions. Twenty-seven doctors provided answers to all three free-text questions (51.9% of included sample). Thematic analysis was used to analyse this qualitative data. 

Brexit was reported by the majority of participants to have a profound impact, although some respondents felt it was too soon to assess the potential consequences. Five themes emerged including: feeling unwelcome in the UK, Brexit as racism, uncertainty on legal ability to work, strain on relationships, and in contrast, a current lack of concern about Brexit.

It seems that those who reported feeling unwelcome etc were picking up on rumours and bad news circulated by, among others the BMC,who announced that:

The Leave campaign ran heavily on anti-immigration messages that consequently resulted in legitimising existing xenophobia and an increase in hate crime around the time of the referendum [34, 35]. Such sentiments, by both the population and politicians such as labelling Europeans as ‘queue jumpers’ [36] has created a sense of othering and hence threatens the cultural component of national identiy [12, 37, 38].

Looking at the actual data

Most of the respondents were pro-Remain '96.1% reported having the position for Britain to Remain in the European Union at the vote in 2016'

The most commonly expressed perspective across the sample was no longer feeling welcome in the UK (n = 20/52; 38.5%): “Got the message- I am no longer welcome here”. This included description of a change in mentality within the British over time against Europeans:

39% overall expressed this perspective -- not even half of this miserable sample of Remainers

Doctors (n = 7/52; 13.5%) explicitly described Brexit as indicative of racism within the UK where Brexit was perceived to reflect racist ideology

14% then. Seven overall! That doesn't stop the authors saying that

Although our study did not pose specific questions on racism, we found that respondents discussed the link between Brexit and racism, unprompted by us, suggesting that further research in this area is necessary

And

Some doctors (n = 9/49; 18.4%) described their future working life in the UK to be insecure and uncertain.

A slightly larger number -- still a minority:

A common theme (n = 11/52; 21.2%) was the strain that the Brexit vote and its’ aftermath had taken on doctors’ relationships. 

Perhaps like many Remainers they were shocked and upset that the working classes had not listened to them? Meanwhile:

eight participants (n = 8/52; 15.4%) described themselves as not being concerned on the effects of Brexit on their lives 

Even by these pathetic results, this is still a larger percentage than described Brexit as indicative of racism, yet there seems to be no call for necessary further research in this area.

Presumably, they got their headline claim -- that 'Brexit was reported by the majority of participants to have a profound impact', by adding up the minorities reporting seperate impacts to sum to an overall 'profund impact'.