BRADFORD’S three NHS health trusts say the UK’s vote to leave the European Union has not significantly affected their workforce.

Before-and-after-Brexit statistics obtained by the BBC and shared with the Telegraph & Argus show Bradford Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust is bucking the national trend for EU workers leaving their jobs.

Only ten out of 298 members of staff who left in 2016-17 after the Brexit vote were from the EU, about one per cent fewer than in the previous two years.

The British Medical Association has warned almost half of the 10,000 EU doctors working in the UK were considering leaving in light of the result and there has been a sharp drop in nurses registering to work in the UK.

But Patricia Campbell, director of Human Resources at Bradford Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, said: “We are not particularly seeing a ‘Brexit effect’ in terms of recruitment at our Trust.

“We have recruited well into midwifery posts and have seen no noticeable change with respect to medical recruitment post-Brexit.

“Nursing recruitment remains particularly challenging for us, in line with other Trusts, and we have few EU staff applying for posts. Our focus on recruiting and retaining our staff will continue to be a priority.”

The BBC’s figures, from NHS Digital and Freedom of Information requests, showed four out of 169 Bradford District Care Trust leavers were of EU origin after the referendum, just one per cent up on the year before.

Fiona Sherburn, deputy director of human resources and organisation development, said: “We have an ongoing recruitment campaign in place and are able to recruit appropriate staff as required.”

However, the number of EU staff who left Airedale NHS Foundation Trust in 2016-2017 did increase. Out of 161 workers from all nationalities who left the Trust in those months, 15 were from the EU compared to seven out of 278 in 2015-16 and four out of 263 a year earlier.

Jill Asbury, director of nursing at Airedale NHS Foundation Trust, said: “Over the last two years we have recruited nurses from the EU to support our nursing workforce.

“The majority of those recruited remain at Airedale, though some have gone back home or to work elsewhere for a variety of reasons.

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“We continue to look at ways of retaining all staff including those from the EU.”

Nationally, the NHS Confederation has warned that if a significant proportion of the 58,000 EU nationals working in the health service leave, the sustainability of quality services would be jeopardised.