NURSES’ leaders have expressed “major concern” over a rising number of members of the profession from the EU leaving the UK in the wake of the Brexit vote.

New figures from the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) – which maintains a register of nurses practising in the UK as part of its regulatory duties – show more nurses from Europe leaving the British register and a plummeting number applying to join.

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According to a new report by the NMC in 2017/18 – 962 nurses from the EU left the register, an increase of 29 per cent from the previous year, while the number of EU nurses who joined dropped by 87 per cent.

In the last financial year, 805 EU nurses and midwives joined the register compared with 6382 the year before.

A survey of 227 European nurses who had left the register found 47 per cent said Brexit had encouraged them to consider work outside of the UK.

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The NMC said it had “major concerns” over the numbers and the Royal College of Nursing (RCN) said that European nurses’ rights are “not clear enough”.

The report, which examines activity on the register, states that overall, at the end of March 2018, there were 690,278 nurses and midwives on the register – 495 fewer than at the end of March 2017.

A survey of more than 3000 British nurses identified retirement and staffing concerns as issues as two of the main reasons for nurses leaving the register.

However, there has been a rise in the number of nurses coming to Britain from outside of the EU – possibly due to recruitment programmes in places like India and the Philippines.

“The number of people from the EU leaving our register remains a major concern, despite reassuring comments from senior members of government and nurse leaders,” said NMC chief executive and registrar Jackie Smith.

Janet Davies, chief executive and general secretary of the Royal College of Nursing, said: “It feels that efforts to boost the number of nurses are being dragged down by a botched Brexit. Nurses returning home, or giving Britain a miss entirely, are doing so because their rights are not clear enough. Theresa May must use every opportunity to say they are welcome here and valued in health care.

“As the overall number of nursing staff falls again, it is patients who will worry the most. The Government knows patients can pay the highest price when staff shortages bite. Each country of the UK needs a funded and detailed plan to boost nurse numbers and ensure safe patient care.”

One EU registered doctor, working in Scotland, who preferred not to be named, said he was not surprised at the number of EU nurses leaving the UK and believed the number could increase as Brexit approached.

He added that the recent Windrush generation controversy – which has seen children of people from the West Indies who settled in the UK decades ago lose their rights and face deportation – exacerbated EU citizens’ fears over what may happen to them after Brexit.