Medicine: British Students Abroad

(asked on 20th May 2026) - View Source

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what estimate his Department has made of the number of British nationals who obtained medical degrees overseas and subsequently applied for roles within the NHS in each of the last five years.


Answered by
Karin Smyth Portrait
Karin Smyth
Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
This question was answered on 9th June 2026

The following table shows the number of United Kingdom nationals with a non-UK primary medical qualification (PMQ) applying to the UK Foundation Programme between 2021 and 2025:

Foundation training intake year

UK nationals with a non-UK PMQ

2021

152

2022

175

2023

160

2024

140

2025

156

Source: NHS England foundation programme recruitment data.

The data is based on self-declared nationality. It is possible that some of these doctors gained UK nationality following their medical graduation, although the data does not allow identification of this.

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