NHS needs more foreign doctors, says GP leader

Thousands of foreign doctors must be fast-tracked into the country to fill GP vacancies, the leader of Britain’s family doctors has said. Prof Helen Stokeslampard, chairman of the Royal College of GPS, urged NHS England to take steps to ease the recruitment crisis.

THOUSANDS of foreign doctors must be fast-tracked into Britain to plug GP vacancies amid a “haemorrhaging” of existing staff, the leader of Britain’s family doctors has said.

Writing for The Telegraph online, Prof Helen Stokes-lampard warned that waiting times for GP appointments were already at a “an all-time high” with new data today expected to show a worsening picture in many areas.

The chairman of the Royal College of GPS said too many patients were being forced to wait up to a month for appointments, leaving too many to suffer or develop more serious complaints. She urged NHS England to make it easier for practices to hire overseas GPS.

“Unfortunately, while workload in general practice is soaring, we are haemorrhaging family doctors from the NHS,” said Prof Stokes-lampard.

Two years ago, health officials promised to train 5,000 more GPS by 2020, but the workforce has since fallen by 1,000. NHS England had pledged to recruit 2,000 GPS from abroad by 2020-21, but senior NHS figures have told Health Service Journal they are expecting only around half that number.

Prof Stokes-lampard, a Staffordshire GP, said the NHS needed to do far more to bring in qualified recruits because it would take 10 years to train homegrown GPS. She wrote: “One immediate solution is to look overseas.”

She said the Royal College was working with NHS England and others to find ways of streamlining processes to ensure that the target of 2,000 foreign recruits was met “while maintaining the highest levels of patient safety”. But she warned that things were moving slowly, with reports suggesting the target was in jeopardy.

Prof Stokes-lampard urged NHS England to lift “significant barriers” for surgeries that want to employ GPS from outside the EU.

She said Uk-trained GPS from overseas “have been unable to find a practice with the necessary licence to employ them”, and practices and patients were losing out “because of what basically amounts to a technicality”.

Today, officials will publish findings from an annual survey of more than 800,000 patients on waiting times, satisfaction and access to appointments. Prof Stokes-lampard said she feared more rises in long waits to see a GP rising in many parts of the country.

She urged the Secretary of State for Health, Matt Hancock, to invest an extra £2.5billion in general practice by 2020-21.

A Department of Health and Social Care spokesman said: “We are investing billions of pounds into GP services and last year recruited the highest number of GP trainees ever.”

He said funding for the NHS would rise by £20.5 billion a year by 2023-24.