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NHS hospitals are to pay for new visas for thousands of EU staff in a bid to keep them in London after Brexit, the Evening Standard can reveal.

University College London Hospitals, St George’s Hospitals and Guy’s and St Thomas’s are among the NHS trusts offering to foot the bill to prevent a feared exodus of foreign health workers.

More than one in 10 of the capital’s health workers are from other European countries and NHS leaders are concerned that the UK’s departure from the EU on March 29 next year will worsen dire staff shortages.

Professor Marcel Levi, chief executive of UCLH, one of the country’s elite NHS trusts, has written to almost 1,300 staff offering to cover the cost of each applying for “settled status”.

This is likely to cost UCLH, which has nine hospitals in central London, in excess of £100,000.

Professor Levi, who is from the Netherlands, told staff: “Regardless of Brexit, we want you to stay with us.”

Jacqueline Totterdell, chief executive of St George’s, in Tooting, is due to send similar letters to its 1,000 EU staff next week.

“Our EU staff are all valued members of ‘Team St George’s’ and make an enormous contribution to the services we provide every day,” a spokesman said.

Siobhan Harrington, chief executive of Whittington hospital, in Archway, also offered to cover the cost of staff securing their immigration status to remain in the UK.

She said: “[It’s] so important to ensure our European colleagues are supported through any uncertainty. Valuing our staff who do such a great job to care for patients is key to our future NHS.”

Imperial College Healthcare, which runs five west London hospitals including St Mary’s, and London North West Healthcare, which runs four hospitals including Northwick Park, are considering similar help for EU staff.

UCLH was unusual in declaring a £76m surplus in the last financial year but most of the other NHS trusts are struggling for cash to maintain frontline services.

An “early bird” settlement scheme for NHS workers launches on November 29, four months ahead of the general population. Applications cost £65.

UCLH said it would reimburse staff £85 to ensure they did not lose out once their wages were taxed. It is also arranging for specialist employment lawyers to hold advice sessions.

“Settled status” will give EU citizens unrestricted rights to remain in the UK, and the right to a British passport after five years of continuous residency.

Those who do not apply may have to leave the country by December 2020.

Last week Simon Stevens, chief executive of NHS England, urged London health workers to “hug an EU nurse” to demonstrate that they are welcome to stay in the capital after Brexit.

Mr Stevens revealed he had personally sought out Spanish nurses at St Thomas’s hospital, in Lambeth, when his wife was receiving treatment, to reassure them and encourage them to remain with the NHS.

He said: “We need everybody across the NHS in London to put your arm around a friend from the rest of the European Union and make sure they get that message.”

The capital has about 8,000 nursing vacancies - up five per cent on last year.

Professor Jane Cummings, chief nursing officer at NHS England, said: “We are all concerned [about Brexit], particularly about workforce implications.”

The Royal College of Physicians recently warned that the £150m a year cost to the NHS of recruiting foreign staff could more than triple if freedom of movement ends as a result of Brexit.