The UK government commenced taking applications for the new Skilled Worker Visa from January 2021, based on the new post-Brexit points-based visa and immigration system.

Verdict conducted a poll to analyse the impact of the post-Brexit points-based immigration system on the UK’s healthcare system.

More than half of the respondents (51%) opined that the new system will have a negative impact on the healthcare system, including 26% who voted that the impact will be very negative, 18% who voted that it’ll be negative and 7% who voted that it’ll be minor negative.

Conversely, 39% of the respondents voted that the system will have a positive impact, including 21% who foresee a very positive impact, 12% who expect a positive impact and 6% who anticipate a minor positive impact.

The new immigration system will not impact the UK’s healthcare system, according to the remaining respondents.

The analysis is based on 323 responses received from the readers of Pharmaceutical Technology, a Verdict network site, between 08 March and 07 April 2021.

Impact of new post-Brexit points-based immigration system on the UK healthcare system

The entry of migrant healthcare professionals to the UK has been fast-tracked by the government through Health and Care Visa, which is a modified version of the NHS visa, as a part of the new Skilled Worker route. Healthcare workers will no longer have to pay the hefty immigration health surcharge.

The new immigration system, however, has put an end to the free movement of the care workers of the European Union (EU) and has applied a new salary threshold for them.

The skills and qualifications of the social care providers do not meet the requirements for the new Health and Care Visa for exemption, regardless of their qualification, which could potentially lead to shortage of care workers and affect the quality of care in the sector.