NHS to recruit 2,000 doctors from abroad to meet targets
The NHS will look overseas to recruit about 2,000 more GPs in order to meet its staff targets, the head of NHS England has said.
Picture: iStock
Chief executive Simon Stevens said four times the 500 extra doctors that had been planned are needed from countries such as New Zealand, Australia and the rest of the European Union.
The government has set a target of recruiting 5,000 more GPs by 2020, but has been widely expected to miss this goal.
In an interview with the Health Service Journal (HSJ), Mr Stevens said efforts were being stepped up to encourage GPs to come to the UK.
Retirement pressures
He said: ‘Although there are some good signs of progress on increases in the GP training scheme, nevertheless there are real pressures around retirements.
‘And so the conclusion we’ve come to is that in order to increase the likelihood of being able to have 5,000 more doctors in general practice, we are going to need... a significantly expanded industrial scale international recruitment programme.
‘We intend to launch that in the autumn.
‘Rather than the current 500 or so GPs that are being targeted for international recruitment... it probably needs to be four times more than that, from international sources – (from the) rest of the EU and possibly New Zealand and Australia.’
Pay cap
Asked for his view on whether the public-sector pay cap should be lifted, he said: ‘I think it’s a mixed picture.
‘There’s a sense of fairness across the NHS that it would be a good thing to do. But of course ultimately these are judgements that government has to make.’
He said if the cap was lifted extra funding for NHS staff would have to be put in place.
Richard Vautrey, acting chair of the British Medical Association’s GP committee, said: ‘Overseas doctors have for decades provided a valuable contribution to the NHS, especially in general practice, where they have a strong track record of providing first-class patient care.
Missed target
‘However, this announcement is yet another clear admission of failure from the government, which is effectively conceding it cannot meet its own target of recruiting 5,000 extra GPs without an emergency draft of doctors from abroad.
‘We need a long-term solution that addresses these workload pressures, which lead to low morale amongst existing GPs and create a climate which is putting off medical graduates from choosing general practice as a career.’
Royal College of GPs chair Helen Stokes-Lampard said the college welcomed any GP from the EU or further afield ‘as long as they meet the rigorous standards set by the College and General Medical Council to ensure safe clinical practice’.
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