We need to recruit 2,000 more GPs from abroad, says NHS boss

THE NHS will look overseas to recruit 2,000 more GPs to meet its staff targets, Simon Stevens said last night.

The NHS England chief executive said that four times the 500 extra doctors that had been planned were needed from countries such as New Zealand and Australia, as well as the EU.

The Government has set a target of recruiting 5,000 more GPs by 2020, but has been widely expected to miss this goal.

Mr Stevens said: ‘Although there are some good signs of progress on increases in the GP training scheme, there are real pressures around retirements.

‘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.’

He told the Health Service Journal: ‘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 the] rest of the EU and possibly New Zealand and Australia.”

Dr Richard Vautrey, of the British Medical Association’s GP committee, said: ‘Applying a sticking plaster by recruiting doctors from abroad can only offer a limited shortterm fix, especially when there is uncertainty over freedom of movement.’