Why this group photo of an NHS surgical team has gone viral

'We are Europe!'

It has been an uncomfortable week for everyone, with the national vote to leave the EU dividing the country and throwing parliament into political turmoil.

Arguably the people who have suffered the most however, are migrants – some of whom have been targeted with xenophobic abuse since the Brexit vote was officially announced.

Polling statistics show that public discontent with the scale of migration to the UK was the driving force behind the pro-Leave win, with many blaming job shortages and the risk of terrorism on free movement.

Some have even admitted to voting leave to ‘get rid of immigrants.' However, others have pointed out how much migrants contribute to British society, standing up to a xenophobia that has seen aggressive slurs hurled at migrants to ‘leave’ and ‘get off our shores’.

In reaction to this, a group of medics from Homerton University Hospital have uploaded a photo to social media in defiance of Brexit - an uplifting image that has unsurprisingly gone viral.

The NHS surgical team posed for a photo together, each proudly holding a sign displaying their nationality. The group was made up of three Spanish scrub nurses, a German anaesthetist, a Greek urologist, an Irish radiographer and a British Pakistani consultant, highlighting the importance of immigration and proving that it does quite literally save lives.

Junaid Masood, the consultant urologist in the photo, shared the image online along with the caption '"We are Europe!" Today we have been hard at work improving people’s lives! This is what our friends from Europe do for the NHS.’

‘Let’s speak out for working together and not being a divided society', he continued, 'Immigration has been the backbone of the NHS we all love and cherish, and is good for our society and country!!’

The moving picture has been shared on Facebook and retweeted thousands of times, spreading the uplifting and unifying message. Finally – something positive to tweet about!