The NHS should slash numbers of foreign doctors and hire British ones in their place when the UK leaves the EU, Jeremy Hunt has said.

Britain has more foreign doctors working in its health service than any other major European country, with 36 per cent of its workforce born overseas according to the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD).

But the British Medical Association (BMA) has argued the Health Secretary's controversial new junior doctors’ contract – due te be imposed in the coming days – will only drive more British-trained NHS staff away.

Brexit would “throw into sharp relief the number of doctors, nurses and healthcare assistants we need to import every year in order to sustain our health system”, Mr Hunt told The Mail on Sunday.

He said: “I think people will ask whether it is right when we are turning away bright British youngsters from medical school – who might get three A* [at A-level] but still can’t get in – at the same time we are importing people from all over the world. I think it’s a debate we need to have.”

Around 55,000 NHS staff are citizens of other EU countries – amounting to 4.6 per cent of the overall workforce – and NHS chiefs have repeatedly warned that staff from the EU are desperately needed to avoid the collapse of the service.

The status of NHS workers from the EU remains uncertain and union leaders have repeatedly called on the Government to offer them protection.

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BMA leader Ellen McCourt warned in September that the morale of NHS staff was at “rock bottom” and said Mr Hunt’s new junior doctors contract risked an exodus of UK-trained medics to other countries.

“The biggest risk with this contract, and also with this dispute continuing, is that doctors will leave the NHS,” she said.

“You can’t stretch us more thinly. There needs to be a plan – how are we going to make medicine more attractive to people? How are we going to make people stay in the NHS?”

While demand for NHS services grows by around 4 per cent a year, the percentage of GDP spent on it is shrinking.

In pictures: Junior doctors first all-out strike Show all 10 1 /10 In pictures: Junior doctors first all-out strike In pictures: Junior doctors first all-out strike Doctor in acute medicine, Melissa Haskins, holds up a 'I ain't afraid of no Hunt' sign whilst striking with other junior doctors outside her hospital, St Thomas' Hospital in London Getty Images In pictures: Junior doctors first all-out strike Accident and emergency junior doctor, Jennifer Hulse, holds a homemade placard outside St Thomas' Hospital as she strikes with colleagues in London Getty Images In pictures: Junior doctors first all-out strike Demonstrators and Junior doctors hold placards as they protest outside the Basingstoke and North Hampshire Hospital, in Basingstoke during a strike by junior doctors Getty Images In pictures: Junior doctors first all-out strike Demonstrators and Junior doctors hold placards as they protest outside the Basingstoke and North Hampshire Hospital, in Basingstoke during a strike by junior doctors Getty Images In pictures: Junior doctors first all-out strike A supporter displays a slogan on her bag during a junior doctors' strike outside St Thomas' Hospital in London Reuters In pictures: Junior doctors first all-out strike The picket line outside King's College Hospital in London PA In pictures: Junior doctors first all-out strike The picket line outside King's College Hospital in London, as thousands of junior doctors begun the first all-out strike in the history of the NHS after the Health Secretary said the Government would not be "blackmailed" into dropping its manifesto pledge for a seven-day health service PA In pictures: Junior doctors first all-out strike Junior doctors and supporters take part in a strike outside the Royal United Hospital in Bath Getty Images In pictures: Junior doctors first all-out strike Doctor in acute medicine, Melissa Haskins, holds up a 'I ain't afraid of no Hunt' sign whilst striking with other junior doctors outside her hospital, St Thomas' Hospital in London Getty Images In pictures: Junior doctors first all-out strike Dave Prentis, UNISON general secretary visits a British Medical Association picket line at Royal Sussex County Hospital in Brighton, to show support for striking junior doctors on the second day of the union's annual health conference PA

At the current rate of healthcare spending, a £6bn shortfall in the social care system is predicted by 2020, according to the Health Foundation, an independent charity.

After the EU referendum, the Leave campaign abandoned its much-touted £350m pledge to the NHS.