New GMC data has suggested that more than 700 GPs have left the NHS over the past six years to move overseas.

Obtained by the i newspaper, the data found that 743 GPs had asked to be removed from the register between 2015 and 2020 as they were moving to work overseas. Nearly 1,700 specialists and 4,300 non-specialists had also asked to be removed from the register over the same time period.

The disclosure comes after the number of fully-qualified full time-equivalent GPs working in England dropped by 651 between June 2019 and June 2020.

A survey from the British Association of Physicians of Indian Origin (BAPIO) and the Association of Pakistani Physicians of Northern Europe (APPNE) in August last year found that visa rules for adult dependent relatives was putting a large emotional burden on immigrant doctors, who constitute around a third of the NHS workforce. In total, 91 per cent of respondents reported feelings of anxiety because of this issue and 80 per cent had thought of relocating.

The British Medical Association and Royal College of GPs have written to the government to urge the visa rules be changed in order to enable doctors to stay in the UK.

Dr Kitty Mohan, BMA international committee chair, said: “With a record backlog in the number of patients waiting for care, the last thing the NHS can afford right now is to lose more doctors. The thousands who have left the UK in recent years represent a huge loss of knowledge and expertise to the health service and its patients.

“While the reasons underpinning doctors’ decisions to move overseas are likely numerous and complex, the government and employers must step up efforts to retain these skilled clinicians. This includes making it as easy as possible for appropriately qualified overseas-born staff, to whom the NHS owes so much, to work and stay in the UK, and by removing bureaucratic, illogical and uncompassionate barriers preventing them from giving their all to the health service.”