RESIDENCY applications for European NHS staff "should be fast-tracked" after Brexit amid fears that thousands of doctors and nurses are already abandoning the health service.
Leading medics warned that uncertainty over future immigration status and employment arrangements after the UK leaves the EU was driving staff away.
Read more: Brexit has strengthened Union, insists Michael Gove
In the 12 months to June 2017, 9,832 EU doctors, nurses and support staff left the NHS - an increase of 42 per cent compared to the same period two years previously. This included 1794 doctors.
A report, 'Securing a Healthy Brexit Deal', published today by the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons Glasgow (RCPSG) said applications by EU NHS staff for settled status in the UK post-Brexit "should be expedited and prioritised".
The College added that the cost "should be met by government rather than individuals who are currently employed in the NHS".
Read more: NHS Scotland may need £500m extra after Brexit, report warns
The Scottish Government has estimates that non-UK citizens make up 6.8 per cent of doctors in NHS Scotland, compared to around 10 per cent in NHS England.
The UK Government announced in December 2017 that EU Nationals currently living in the UK will be able to apply for “settled status” - an indefinite right to remain in the UK - but no details of the proposal have been published to date.
The report - which detailed ten post-Brexit recommendations for the NHS - also said trade barriers, including non-tariff barriers, on medical goods and services should be avoided post-Brexit.
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It warned that such restrictions "have the potential to have an adverse impact on the UK's health and social care sector".
Professor David Galloway, president of the RCPGS, said: "If we reach a situation where no agreement is reached with the EU on our future relationship, or that this new relationship fails to facilitate the high standards patients expect from their NHS, this would have an adverse impact on patients in a number of ways.
"This is a outcome that no-one wants, and so it's imperative that everyone who has the best interests of the NHS at heart engages constructively with this difficult process.
"We must leave no stone unturned to ensure that we agree a Brexit deal which does no harm."
Meanwhile, the chair of BMA Scotland, the doctors' trade union, said the current situation was "deeply concerning".
Ahead of a meeting in Brussels about the future European medical workforce, Dr Peter Bennie said: “It is deeply concerning that we have seen virtually no progress on a solution that will allow medical professionals to come to Scotland to work after Brexit.
"While we have seen some reassurance for doctors already in Scotland and those who arrive during the transition period, there is absolutely no clarity on what immigration arrangements may be in place once we have left the European Union, and the implications that could have for doctors."
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