Overseas GPs to Be Recruited for UK 
 
The number of GPs is set to see a sharp increase, according to Simon Stevens’ international recruitment programme. The Chief Executive of NHS England announced his plans in July, which has aggressive acceleration targets to boost the current GP workforce.
                                                                                                        
This scheme was announced as official NHS figures showed that the number of full-time (equivalent) GPs working increased by less than 1% between March and June 2017. The original aim of the project was to recruit around 500-600 doctors into general practice in some of the hardest to recruit areas in England, with a deadline target of 2020/2021. These plans include recruitment costs, and the relocation and training of overseas doctors.
 
Tenders on the Official Journal of the European Union (OJEU) site also show that NHS England is calling for recruitment firms to support the programme.
 
 
Why the lack of GPs in the UK?
 
Well, despite GP training places increasing year-on-year and many GPs returning to practice, there is still a lack of doctors. A significant number of older GPs are retiring earlier, further reducing the number of doctors. Figures published by NHS Digitalshow a decrease of 542 GPs, as the figures dropped from 34,914 GPs in March 2016 to 34,372 in March 2017.
 
In attempts to combat this, Local Medical Committee(LMC) representatives are proposing to call on the General Practitioners Committee(GPC) to ask NHS England to invest in locum chambers in order to recruit and retain more GPs.
 
GP leaders have also proposed a new ‘locum plus’ way of working that would give structure to locums to work in rotation with a broad spectrum of practices, by the way of fixed-term salaried contracts.
 
These plans will be put forward by the sessional GPs subcommittee on Friday 10th November in London at the inaugural GPC England conference.
 
 
Locum chambers: a new way of working
 
An NASGPsurvey showed that 80% of locums said they were still GPs only because of chambers. Chairman of the NASGP, Dr Richard Fieldhouse told GPonlinethat locum chambers are a ‘fantastic vehicle to recruit and retain GP locums’, and he encourages plans to roll them out across the country.
 
Chambers - as a way of working - are often seen in other professional outfits like barristers, and they enable locums to keep their self-employed status whilst still having some support services by co-operative arrangements.
 
Dr Fieldhouse also said: ‘It’s much nicer working as a team, it’s more independent – GPs who work in chambers adore them, it is an excellent model. However, what we haven’t yet got right is the pricing, because they are very expensive to run.’
 
If you would like to register your interest in locum work then please email us at keylocums@keylocums.com or call us at 0844 561 0950.
We look forward to working with you soon.