£20k ‘golden hello’ for new GPs

Newly qualified GPs will be offered a £20,000 “golden hello” to take up posts in areas struggling to recruit doctors.

Health secretary Jeremy Hunt announced the plan last week and many surgeries in Kent, hit hard by replacements not being found for retiring or departing doctors, are set to benefit from the £4 million investment.

In Medway, Swale and most recently in Folkestone, practices have been forced to close due to a shortage of GPs.

Mr Hunt announced the new training scheme, which will launch in 2018, at the Royal College of General Practitioners Conference in Liverpool last Thursday.

He said: “Last month, the Care Quality Commission gave a glowing verdict on the state of general practice in England.

“But this should not distract us from the fact that the profession is under considerable pressure at the moment.

“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.”

In 2015, GPs warned a chronic shortage of doctors in Kent needed to be addressed.

Hard-to-recruit areas will benefit from the scheme offering trainee doctors a £20,000 one-off payment.

The government says it hopes this will encourage them to take up positions where there are not enough GPs.

The Targeted Enhanced Recruitment Scheme will provide training for GPs in places where spaces have been vacant for “a number of years”.

The government also said 1,500 additional training places being made available next year need to be located in “priority areas” such as coastal and rural communities.