Healthcare has always attracted a large proportion of female workers, and there continue to be growing numbers of women in the medical workforce. It is anticipated that the working hours per week in the medical workforce will reduce over the next ten years reflecting a greater demand for flexible working arrangements by both men and women and the need for compliance with European Working Time Directive by 2009, which imposes a maximum of 48 working hours per week. Advances in technology will also have a significant impact on the shape of London’s workforce through the creation of more centres with the technology and expertise to deliver highly specialised, complex care, and through the development of assisted technology enabling care to be delivered closer to home. This will require the redesign of working patterns, the development of new skills and expertise and the opportunity to create new roles. London plays an important role both nationally and internationally in training and developing future healthcare professionals but suffers from high labour turnover and loss of key staff to other parts of the country. For example, London trains 29% of UK medical undergraduates but over a third of these students do not work there after graduation. For nursing and midwifery, London’s share of students (18.3%) is in proportion to the number of staff employed (17.7%). However, it is believed that London exports qualified and experienced staff to the rest of England, as demonstrated by consistently higher vacancy rates.