What is really going on in politics? Get our daily email briefing straight to your inbox Sign up Thank you for subscribing We have more newsletters Show me See our privacy notice Invalid Email

The NHS is heading for a staff shortage because of Brexit, analysis reveals.

An investigation by Channel 4’s Dispatches found 25,000 – or 42% of – European NHS workers could be off within five years of us leaving the EU.

The health service employs 140,000 people from overseas, including 60,000 from the EU.

These include 13,307 workers from Ireland, 7,451 from Poland, 6,325 from Portugal, 7,199 from Spain, 5,299 from Italy, 2,992 from Romania 2,750 from Greece, 2,412 from Germany, 1,451 from Holland and 1,424 from France.

(Image: Getty)

Some 66% of foreign staff said they were worried about their career in the UK, the survey of NHS trusts found.

The findings raise fears about the ability of the NHS to maintain staffing levels at a time when there are more than 20,000 nursing vacancies in England.

Recruitment specialist Barry Pactor said: “The EU has been essential to top up the big gap in the number of nurses in the UK.

“We’ve seen a huge reduction in the number of nurses from EU countries applying to work in the UK, as much as a drop of 90%.

"I don’t think it’s all down to Brexit, over the past 18 months there’s been considerable number of changes, I think Brexit is another big piece on top.”

Since the Brexit vote there has been a 90% drop in EU nurses applying here.

But the Department of Health said: “There are 11,600 more doctors and 13,400 more nurses on our wards since 2010.”