More than two-thirds of trusts and health boards in the UK are actively trying to recruit from abroad as they struggle to cope with a shortage of qualified staff, figures reveal.
Tens of thousands of NHS nursing and doctor posts are vacant.
The statistics, obtained by the BBC, show the scale of the NHS recruitment crisis.
Health unions blame poor workforce planning, but officials say the NHS has more staff than ever before.

Data from a BBC Freedom of Information request shows that on 1 December 2015, the NHS in England, Wales and Northern Ireland had more than 23,443 nursing vacancies - equivalent to 9% of the workforce.

Agency workers
In comparison, the average vacancy rate across the UK economy from November to January 2016 was 2.7%, according to the Office for National Statistics.

The figures - which include 106 out of 166 trusts and health boards in England, Wales and Northern Ireland - also revealed:
Between 2013 and 2015, there has been a 50% increase in nursing vacancies, from 12,513 to 18,714.
For doctors, the number of vacancies went from 2,907 to 4,669 - an increase of roughly 60%.
In England and Wales, there were 1,265 vacancies for registered nurses in emergency departments - about 11% of the total.
For consultants in emergency medicine there were 243 vacancies - again 11% of the total.
Paediatric consultants - specialists in the care of babies, children and young people - were also hard to recruit, with 221 vacancies - about 7% of the total.