Hundreds of EU workers at Boris Johnson's local hospital fear for their future

Managers at Boris Johnson’s local hospital have discussed concern over the “anxiety” caused to EU national staff by Brexit, it has emerged.

The concern was recorded in minutes of a board meeting of the Hillingdon Hospitals NHS Trust earlier this year, obtained by Liberal Democrats.

It came as new figures obtained through freedom of information requests showed that at least 3,250 NHS staff from the EU have left the health service so far this year, including 1,116 nurses.

The data, based on responses from 50 NHS hospital trusts, reveal that more than 11,600 EU national staff have left the NHS in the three full years since the 2016 vote for Brexit, among whom were 4,783 nurses.

Some of the worst affected NHS trusts so far in 2019 included London North West (362 EU leavers), Oxford University Hospitals (304) and University Hospitals Bristol (203), said the Liberal Democrats.

The party released minutes from a board meeting at the Hillingdon trust – which operates a hospital in Mr Johnson’s Uxbridge and South Ruislip constituency – in March, which stated that the most significant risk posed by Brexit is the “anxiety felt by approximately 300 EU nationals in the workforce in terms of their jobs and future at the trust”.

The Conservative manifesto pledge of 50,000 more nurses for the NHS depends on 12,500 extra nurses from overseas.

But after Brexit, EU nationals coming to work in the NHS will have to pay a £400 annual healthcare surcharge on top of a £464 NHS visa, under a system denounced by the Lib Dems as a “nurse tax”.

The latest figures from the Nursing and Midwifery Council showed that the number of new nurses coming from the EU to work in the UK dropped by 87 per cent from 6,382 in 2016-17 to 805 in 2017-18.

Lib Dem health spokeswoman Luciana Berger said: “These figures reveal the major threat Brexit poses to our NHS, including in Boris Johnson’s own backyard where EU staff are worried about their future here.

“The Conservatives’ treatment of NHS nurses and doctors from the EU has been utterly shameful. People looking after our sick and elderly relatives have been left living in unbearable uncertainty, and now the Tories want to clobber them with a nurse tax worth thousands of pounds to come and work in the NHS. This will make the severe staff shortages faced by the NHS even worse and patient care will suffer as a result.

“The Liberal Democrats will stop Brexit to protect our NHS. We will make clear to staff from the EU that they are valued, tackle the staffing crisis and invest an extra £35 billion in health and social care.”