“…we need to address the issues of why we aren't attracting sufficient home grown people now”
The reasons are fairly straightforward. Nurses need a degree which is ridiculous (or would be if secondary education, which is what many “degree” courses simply see the completion of, was satisfactory. Doctors (understandably) need to take a five year degree which leaves them with around £50k debt.
This problem has not appeared overnight. It has been evident for decades. The solutions to the problem are simple but are not being implemented because it is easier to ship in people with often dubious qualifications and skills rather than regulate and fund the necessary training ourselves.
“Maybe making emigration harder would help the numbers?”
What, like, making it harder for people to leave you mean (thus increasing “net” migration which relies on high levels of emigration to keep it down).
“isn't this balanced by the people who left the country, many never to return.”
No it isn’t, emmie. The figure of 244,000 is the excess of those arriving over those leaving: 578k in, 334k leaving.