EU immigration makes UK workforce planning impossible
EU citizens have the right to move and reside freely within EU member states. A lack of migration-related information makes workforce planning in dentistry (and other professions) difficult, because data outlining the numbers of people migrating across countries is unreliable. This can result in inaccurate workforce plans.
The concept of free movement of people in the EU came about with the signing of the Schengen Agreement in 1985 and the subsequent Schengen Convention in 1990, which initiated the abolition of border controls between participating countries.
The UK has a long history of employing internationally qualified healthcare professionals to help sustain the NHS workforce. In the most recent round of international recruitment, the UK negotiated agreements which enabled NHS organisations and UK recruitment agencies directly to target groups, for instance dentists in Poland. An example of a country being in surplus within their health system and therefore working together with the UK to fill the recruitment gap.
Outside of active recruitment, there is also interest in overall patterns of migration across Europe and the significance of this for the NHS workforce. It could result in an increase number of residents from other EU countries training and working in the UK. This could increase competition for jobs and training places, and displace UK students and professionals. If the notion of the “unemployed dentist” becomes a reality, this may de-motivate students from entering lengthy and costly dental training programmes.
Equally, given economic pressures the UK could decide to rely more heavily on dentists trained in other EU countries. Superficially this would appear to reduce costs, but could cause instability in the system as people return home. In addition, quality may decrease because of the differences in the quality of training. Dental schools in Europe are not as regulated as those in the UK. For example, dental students do not have to do as much vocational training in some other countries as they do in the UK, which may reduce quality. Any retraining or responses to litigation could cost a considerable amount of money.
Given the current economic situation in the UK it is also feasible that UK dentists will choose to emigrate. This could reduce the supply of dentists, as well as the supply of undergraduate students and decrease the numbers completing training.
Whilst at the moment most registered Dentists are UK-qualified, it will be important to understand the impact of EU migration (both to and from the UK) on the workforce going forward.
Sources or references
- CfWI Horizon Scanning Report: Informing dental student intakes
- Health Services and Delivery Research Programme Report 'Health professional mobility in Europe and the UK: a scoping study of ideas and evidence (2009)'
Some of the information in this section is provided by stakeholders and expert groups, and does not necessarily represent the views of the CfWI.
