Only 124 GPs in overseas drive to hire 2,000 still work in England

2022-06-24

Only 124 GPs hired in international recruitment drive which aimed to attract 2,000 doctors are still working in England

NHS launched the now-closed scheme in March 2018 in the hope of attracting 2,000 GPs to the UK by 2020
Just 155 had joined by the end of last year and 31 of these have already left, a Freedom of Information request by GP magazine Pulse revealed
It comes as a major shortage of GPs is making it hard for patients to secure an appointment

Only 124 GPs hired in an international recruitment drive are still working in England despite a goal of attracting thousands, figures reveal.

The NHS launched the now-closed scheme in March 2018 in the hope of attracting 2,000 GPs to the UK by 2020.

But just 155 had joined by the end of last year and 31 of these have already left, a Freedom of Information request by GP magazine Pulse revealed.

It comes as a major shortage of GPs is making it hard for patients to secure an appointment. There are now the equivalent of around 2,000 fewer full-time family doctors working in England than in 2015.

Only 124 GPs hired in an international recruitment drive are still working in England despite a goal of attracting thousands, figures reveal. The NHS launched the now-closed scheme in March 2018 in the hope of attracting 2,000 GPs to the UK by 2020

Professor Martin Marshall, chairman of the Royal College of GPs (RCGP), said: ‘The target to recruit 2,000 international GPs by 2020 was clearly overambitious.

‘It’s important that GPs from overseas who do train here and want to stay working in the NHS, are supported to stay once their training is complete. The fact that this international recruitment scheme has not been as successful as hoped highlights that further initiatives must be put in place to increase and retain the current GP workforce.’

An NHS spokesman said 18,000 more staff had been recruited to ‘additional roles’ in general practice since 2019, and that record numbers had trained to become GPs in the last year.

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