Brexit will cost NHS additional £60m a year to recruit doctors and nurses from abroad, Liberal Democrats claim

Brexit will cost the NHS an additional £60m a year in fees to recruit doctors and nurses from abroad, the Liberal Democrats have claimed.

The extra charge was revealed as Jo Swinson’s party unveiled plans to add a penny to income tax to pay for an additional £35bn in NHS spending over the next five years, while protecting the health service by keeping Britain in the EU.

Health spokeswoman Luciana Berger said that ending free movement under a Conservative or Labour-led Brexit would hit the NHS hard and exacerbate staff shortages by deterring EU healthcare professionals from working in the UK.

And home affairs spokeswoman Christine Jardine highlighted the extra bill which the health service will have to pay under Conservative plans to extend the Immigration Skills Charge to cover European nationals after Brexit.

At present, the £1,000-a-year charge on employers applies only to recruits from outside the European Economic Area.

With around 12,000 EEA nationals – including 2,118 doctors and 2,394 nurses and health visitors – joining NHS trusts and clinical commissioning groups last year, the health service will be faced with a £60m annual bill to cover the charge for their five-year visas unless numbers of recruits drops, said Ms Jardine.

She said the cash drain came on top of a £625 annual “healthcare surcharge” which is due to be applied to EU nationals after Brexit under Tory plans, and will be payable by EU doctors and nurses in the NHS even though they are already paying for their healthcare through taxes.

“Far from giving the NHS extra cash as Johnson promised, Brexit would suck money out of our hospitals and GP surgeries,” said Ms Jardine.

“The NHS would be forced to spend millions on visa fees for the EU citizens who come here to work as doctors, nurses and other healthcare staff. That’s millions of pounds that should be being spent on patients instead.

“This comes on top of the Conservatives’ cruel nurse tax, which would force NHS staff from the EU to pay an extra £625 a year out of their salaries – or more if they have children.

“The NHS relies on tens of thousands of doctors and nurses from the EU, and we desperately need more to address the ongoing nursing crisis.”

Ms Berger said a Liberal Democrat government would raise an additional £7bn a year from an extra penny on income tax a year in additional revenue, ring-fenced for the NHS and social care services.

On top of this, the party announced a £10bn capital fund to upgrade equipment, ambulances, hospitals and other NHS buildings.

And the party set out plans to tackle severe staffing shortages, which has seen nursing vacancies reach 40,000, according to the Royal College of Nursing, and to end the current shortfall of GPs within five years.

This would be done by retaining free movement – including for the 65,000 EU citizens working in the NHS – reinstating nursing bursaries and establishing a national workforce strategy to match training places to future needs.

Ms Berger said: “The NHS is struggling to cope with severe staff shortages, chronic underfunding and crumbling hospital buildings. All of these problems would be made much worse by a Tory or Labour Brexit that would end free movement and make it harder to attract nurses and doctors from the EU.”