European recruitment drive to go ahead

NHS England is set to push ahead with its plan to recruit hundreds of European GPS despite Jeremy Hunt’s pledge to prioritise ‘homegrown’ doctors.

The Health Secretary had announced plans for an increase in medical training places from September 2018, with the government committing to fund up to 1,500 additional student places through medical school each year to ensure the NHS became more ‘self-sufficient’.

Speaking at the Conservative Party Conference, Hunt had said that ‘by dramatically expanding our supply of home-grown doctors, we will ensure the NHS always has the doctors it needs’.

However, reports suggest that a pilot scheme, currently in place in Lincolnshire, will be established as a ‘blueprint’ for similar schemes across the country. Lincolnshire LMC has been working with European medical recruiters to attract GPs to work in the county

Dr Arvind Madan, NHS England director of primary care, said at the RCGP conference: “Previous attempts at this have not been particularly successful, but the work that we are doing with Lincolnshire, where we will hopefully develop a blueprint that can be used across the country, is interesting in as much as that it actually involves induction, in the host country, around what general practice in the UK is like, and what working in the NHS is like.”