Doctors get £20k to go where needed

TRAINEE doctors are to be offered an extra £20,000 to work in parts of the country suffering NHS recruitment shortages, Jeremy Hunt said last night.

The Tory Health Secretary is to unveil a cash incentive programme to try to improve service at GP surgeries.

His Targeted Enhanced Recruitment Scheme will be launched next year.

It will offer the one-off “golden hello” payments to trainee GPs willing to work in areas where training vacancies have been open for several years. Mr Hunt has also ordered Health Education England (HEE) to ensure that many of the 1,500 additional medical training places that will be funded from next year are located in rural and coastal communities.

Mr Hunt said: “By introducing targeted support for vulnerable areas and tackling head-on critical issues such as higher indemnity fees and the recruitment and retention of more doctors, we can strengthen and secure general practice for the future. Our talented GP workforce is one of the reasons why we have the best healthcare system in the world and our commitment of an additional £2.4billion a year for primary care by 2021 will ensure this continues.”

Mr Hunt will formally announce the move in his speech at the Royal College of General Practitioners’ Conference in Liverpool today.

New measures to increase GP recruitment include: flexible working arrangements, including the opportunity to take on mentoring and leadership roles, for GPs considering retirement; a new international recruitment office set up by NHS England to help local areas to recruit GPs from overseas; a Government consultation on the regulation of physician associates to provide further clarity on the scope of the role, and exploring how support staff can bolster healthcare teams.

The Health Secretary is also expected to signal plans for a new state-backed scheme for clinical negligence indemnity for general practice in England, providing a long-term solution to the increasing fees which are forcing doctors out of the profession.