NHS is offering £18,500 to lure GPs back from abroad to tackle the major shortage in family doctors 

The NHS is offering thousands of pounds to British GPs working abroad if they return home – in a bid to tackle a major shortage of family doctors.

NHS England will pay up to £18,500 in ‘relocation support’ for UK-qualified GPs to come back to the health service.

It is part of a scheme that also aims to bring hundreds of GPs out of retirement and career breaks.

Doctors will be put on an ‘induction and refresher’ placement in a GP practice to get their skills up to scratch and paid a bursary of £3,500 a month.

They will then have up to four fully-funded attempts at passing a competency assessment, after which they can apply for any GP job and expect to earn an average salary of £70,000 a year.

Nearly 800 GPs have already taken part in the scheme, but the NHS is relaunching it today in a bid to recruit hundreds more to help tackle the chronic shortage of doctors.

The Government pledged in 2015 to hire 5,000 new GPs by 2020 as part of a ‘five-year forward view’ for the profession. But the latest statistics show the NHS had the full-time equivalent of just 28,596 fully-qualified GPs working in England in December 2018 – 593 fewer than 12 months previously.

The shortfall is projected to get worse. Growing workloads mean experienced GPs are leaving the NHS, with two in five planning to retire or quit their jobs within the next five years.

Although GPs benefited from a new contract under New Labour that led to soaring salaries and enabled them to give up out-of-hours work, morale is said to be at an all-time low. Many young doctors opt to take time out or move abroad as soon as they are qualified.

The scheme also aims to bring hundreds of GPs out of retirement and career breaks, as the current local doctor shortfall is expected to get worse (stock photo)

To be eligible for the refresher scheme doctors must previously have been on the General Medical Council GP Register but do not have to have worked for the NHS – suggesting retired private doctors could be eligible.

Applicants must have had at least two years out before applying and can have spent up to ten years abroad. For people working overseas, the NHS will offer moving expenses up to £18,500 and an ‘extensive programme of support’ to assist with the practicalities.

Its application website says: ‘This will include help with organising transport and finding a home, schools, nurseries and other local facilities as well as support with administrative tasks such as setting up bank accounts and mobile phones. Relocation costs for things such as estate agent fees or transportation of belongings and pets will be paid for.’

It adds: ‘If a GP’s partner wants to pursue their own career in England, whether that is in healthcare or in another profession, the NHS in England will support them to learn or improve their English language and to find suitable work.’

Dr Nikita Kanani, of NHS England, said: ‘General practice is the bedrock of the health service and is a priority as part of the NHS Long Term Plan. This is just one of several plans we have … including having more trainees in place than ever before.

‘We understand the pressures GPs are under, and have invested an extra £978million in core general practice funding by 2023-24 as part of the GP contract, together with a pledge to recruit more than 20,000 healthcare workers to support family doctors over the next five years.’