GP recruitment scheme offering MBAs fails

The scheme was conducted by NHS Hull CCG, which was particularly affected by the recruitment crisis, and provided a number of incentives to keep GPs in the area for six years.

While the scheme was not funded by the government’s 10-point plan for relieving the GP recruitment crisis, NHS England followed NHS Hull CCG’s lead by offering GP trainees ‘an additional flexible year of training, where they can get an MBA in leadership skills or another academic pursuit’.

GP leaders said the similarity between the scenes meant this was what they might ‘expect to see’ nationally.

The initiative was granted a fund of £600,000 by the CCG, Hull City Council, Hull and East Yorkshire Hospitals NHS Trust and the Hull York Medical School, and has so far only spent £5,000 on advertising costs which has been unsuccessful as no GPs have been recruited.

As part of the deal, the CCG pledged to source overseas placements for trainee and qualified GPs to fund an MBA or a Master’s degree in education or leadership. In return GPs are expected to support under-staffed practices and remain in Hull for a minimum of six years.

In response to a freedom of information (FOI) request submitted by Pulse, NHS Hull CCG said: “The CCG has not recruited any GPs as a result of the scheme.”

The FOI request further outlined that the scheme was ‘amended and re-launched in May 2015’ in a bid to reduce the duration of time applicants were required to spend in Hull to three years. The amendments were also intended to give more flexibility regarding the sessions worked and eliminate the custom of rotation between practices.

It added: “We received five applicants to the second offer, all of which were shortlisted. However four withdrew prior to interview and the final candidate was not appointed.”

An NHS Hull CCG spokesperson said: “The scheme, following two unsuccessful recruitment attempts, is not still on offer. However the CCG is looking at various other ways to support general practice and address workforce issues.”

Dr Susie Bayley, vice chair of GP Survival, said: “The innovative scheme run by Hull CCG is similar to what we are expecting to see nationally, as CCGs use money from the 10 point recruitment plan to tie GPs into longer term salaried posts [but] there are several problems with this.”

The problems Bayley cited included doctors being ‘hesitant to commit themselves to long-term schemes’ and the issue that there was still ‘a great deal of mistrust’ between GPs and the Department of Health (DoH). Bayley explained the mistrust was a result of the DoH’s ‘long-term vision’ for general practice and that such schemes would need to offer a ‘considerable incentive’ to be successful.

Dr Russell Walshaw, chief executive of the Humberside Group of LMCs, said: “Maybe CCGs aren’t the best [organisations] for recruiting for GP practices. It may be better for practices to recruit their own doctors.”

One of NHS England’s ten points to tackle the recruitment crisis included: “Offering GP trainees an additional ‘flexible’ year of training where they can train in a special interest, get an MBA in leadership skills or another academic pursuit.”

A spokesperson for NHS Hull CCG said: “We hope that by practices working together collaboratively and developing new models of care they will be in a better position to deliver an expanded range of services which will make working in Hull as a GP potentially a more attractive proposition.”

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