Thousands of foreign medics must be fast-tracked to plug GP vacancies, amid a “haemorrhaging” of existing staff, the leader of Britain’s family doctors has said. Prof Helen Stokes-Lampard warned that waiting times for GP appointments were already at a “an all-time high” with new data today expected to show a further deterioration in many parts of the country. The chairman of the Royal College of GPs urged health officials to lift barriers slowing down recruitment from overseas. Writing for The Telegraph, she said doctors from abroad who wanted to work here as GPs were struggling to obtain licences of employment, calling on NHS England to take steps to ease the crisis. Too many patients were being forced to wait up to a month for an appointment, she said, leaving too many to suffer or develop more serious health complaints. “Unfortunately, while workload in general practice is soaring, both in terms of volume and complexity, we are haemorrhaging family doctors from the NHS,” said Prof Stokes-Lampard. Two years ago health officials promised to train 5,000 more GPs by 2020. But since then, the workforce has fallen by 1,000. Prof Stokes-Lampard urged health officials to do more to tackle the immediate crisis. NHS England had pledged to recruit 2,000 GPs from abroad by 2020/21. But senior NHS figures told Health Service Journal they are expecting around half this number of overseas recruits. Initial plans aimed to recruit around 600 of the GPs by April of last year, but in fact only around 100 were brought in. Prof Stokes-Lampard, a GP in Staffordshire, said the NHS needed to do far more to bring in qualified recruits because it would take 10 years to train homegrown GPs. Read Also: - USMLE vs PLAB vs MCCE vs AMC - NEWS: Foreign Doctors Can Work In UK Without IELTS - Number Of Healthcare Workers In UK According To Nationality “One immediate solution is to look overseas,” she wrote. “The Royal College of GPs has been hugely supportive of NHS England’s plans to recruit 2,000 fully-qualified GPs from abroad and we are working constructively with them and others to explore ways of streamlining processes for this to happen, whilst maintaining the highest levels of patient safety. But things are moving slowly with reports suggesting the target is in jeopardy,” she warned. The GP urged NHS England to lift “significant barriers” for surgeries that currently want to employ GPs from outside of the EU, asking them to act as a sponsor for such applicants. Source
