A record 808,488 nurses, midwives and nursing associates are now registered with the NMC – a rise of almost 20,000 in the six months to September 2023, of whom 93% (748,528) are nurses. In the same period, there were 30,103 joiners, of whom just over half (15,067) were educated in the UK. This is the highest number of domestic joiners ever in the first half of a financial year and is almost 25% higher than the same period last year, an NMC data report states.

However, there was a rise in the number of people joining the register from red-list countries – 3,071 in the six months to last September.

The NMC said there have been ‘significant proportional rises’ in nursing joining the register from Ghana and Zambia and a steadily high number from Nigeria. The regulator urged employers to be mindful of the government’s ethical recruitment code.

Chief executive Andrea Sutcliffe added: ‘People from across the world want to come and work in the UK. However, employers must not undermine health systems in countries with the most pressing workforce challenges through active recruitment.’

The RCN said the headline figures in the report did not reflect what nurses were seeing on the front line and urged the government to invest more in domestic nursing staff rather than relying on staff from red-list countries.

College chief nurse Nicola Ranger said: ‘Since 2019, the NHS waiting list has grown four times faster than the nursing workforce, meaning there aren’t enough staff to provide the outstanding care patients deserve.’

rcni.com/domestic-recruits