Doctors from crisis-hit eurozone countries heading to UK for work

The financial crisis in the eurozone has led to a dramatic increase in the number of doctors from countries such as Greece and Spain leaving to work in the UK, new figures have revealed.

Since 2010 there has been a 29 per cent increase in the number of doctors joining the General Medical Council's register from Greece – with 365 doctors making applications in the past year alone. At the same time the number of doctors who registered in the UK from Spain increased by 28 per cent.

The figures emerged in the GMC's annual report on the state of the medical profession in the UK. It also found that in the past year, the number of complaints against doctors had increased by 23 per cent, with one in every 64 doctors now likely to be investigated by the regulator.

But Niall Dickson, chief executive of the GMC, stressed that the rise in complaints did not necessarily mean that medical standards were falling, adding that the number of serious complaints upheld had not risen.