BID TO FILL 33 VACANT GP JOBS TO TACKLE SHORTAGE
New ad campaign hopes to fill 33 vacancies for family doctors
NHS bosses have launched a national recruitment campaign to try to tackle North Staffordshire’s GP shortage.
There are currently 33 vacancies for family doctors in the area – with 10 of them dating back at least 18 months.
Clinical commissioning groups (CCGS) are now paying for a 12-month advertisement in the British Medical Journal (BMJ) as part of efforts to attract more GPS.
The advert – which includes a sixminute video on the BMJ website – celebrates North Staffordshire’s countryside, transport links and low cost of living.
CCG officials revealed the recruitment issues during a review into GP provision carried out by members of Stoke-on-trent City Council.
While general practice across the country is facing similar problems, councillors heard that North Staffordshire faces particular issues due to negative perceptions of the area.
Keele Medical School has a good record at training GPS, but two-thirds of trainees go on to work outside Staffordshire.
The average age of Stoke-on-trent’s 139 GPS is now 51, with 25 over the age of 60. The review was told that up to 40 per cent of local GPS intended to retire in the next five years.
Councillor Joan Bell, above, who chaired the review, believes the GP shortage is a serious issue.
She said: “We have to make the city a more attractive area to live and work. At the moment that just isn’t happening.
“I think we need to do it while GPS are training at Keele, as too many of them are leaving the area once they are trained.
“The lack of GPS is a major problem. Patients are saying they can’t get appointments when they call.”
A GP Federation representative told the councillors that Stoke-ontrent needs to advertise itself much better to potential trainee GPS, by boasting of its train and road links, its proximity to Manchester and Birmingham, and its abundance of green spaces.
One of the task and finish group’s recommendations is for the city council and health partners to ‘work together to launch a concerted media campaign to promote the benefits of the local area’.
The task and finish review has also highlighted problems with the area’s out-of-hours provision, saying the loss of the previous Gp-led service at Basford has been a ‘considerable loss to primary care’. A CCG representative told the group: “When there is poor outof-hours care, the result is that the work gets pushed back into the in-hours GP service, which therefore doubles the cost, creates duplication and is inefficient.” The report recommends that the out-of-hours service reverts back to being provided by local GPS.
Task and finish group members also want more support for the care navigation scheme, the roll-out of successful GP and pharmacy pilots, and better promotion of non-gp clinical services. The review will be discussed at a meeting later today. GPS are independent NHS contractors and as such are not employed directly by the CCGS.
A CCG spokesman said: “GP recruitment and retention is a national problem and not unique to North Staffordshire.
“Locally we are working hard to recruit new GPS. This has included launching a major campaign highlighting the attractions of working locally for GPS which has attracted early interest.
“We are also developing new workforce models aimed at sharing tasks currently associated principally with GPS. This includes recruiting specialist clinicians such as Primary Care Pharmacists who can prescribe medicines and conduct medicine reviews and Advanced Nurse Practitioners who have a wide range of specialist skills.”