Where Brexit Hurts: The Nurses and Doctors Leaving London
- 7 years ago
Where Brexit Hurts: The Nurses and Doctors Leaving London
Brexit advocates said leaving the European Union would allow the government to repatriate 350 million pounds
a week from Brussels — about $463 million at current exchange rates — and spend it on health care.
On June 24 last year, she said, “We all woke up in a different country.”
Seventeen months after Britain voted to leave the European Union, many Europeans are voting to leave Britain — with their feet.
In London, a city long sustained by European bankers, builders and baristas — “a place
that makes you dream,” Ms. Pardela said — the departures are beginning to hurt.
But recruiting nurses from the European Union had helped plug the gap — especially in London, where
the share of nurses from the Continent is about 14 percent, or twice the national average.
has consistently managed to produce health outcomes comparable to countries with vastly more resources — like France, which has a similar population
but more than twice the number of hospital beds — it is in large part because of the people, said Dr. Noël, who has worked in both systems.
As yet, there is no mass exodus back to the Continent — the number of European Union
staff in the health service even grew slightly in the year after the referendum.
Brexit advocates said leaving the European Union would allow the government to repatriate 350 million pounds
a week from Brussels — about $463 million at current exchange rates — and spend it on health care.
On June 24 last year, she said, “We all woke up in a different country.”
Seventeen months after Britain voted to leave the European Union, many Europeans are voting to leave Britain — with their feet.
In London, a city long sustained by European bankers, builders and baristas — “a place
that makes you dream,” Ms. Pardela said — the departures are beginning to hurt.
But recruiting nurses from the European Union had helped plug the gap — especially in London, where
the share of nurses from the Continent is about 14 percent, or twice the national average.
has consistently managed to produce health outcomes comparable to countries with vastly more resources — like France, which has a similar population
but more than twice the number of hospital beds — it is in large part because of the people, said Dr. Noël, who has worked in both systems.
As yet, there is no mass exodus back to the Continent — the number of European Union
staff in the health service even grew slightly in the year after the referendum.