The NHS to recruit doctors from Europe

12th January 2017 Newsroom Europe 0

HealthInGr
The Express — The National Health Service  in England is launching a new scheme to recruit GPs from Poland, Lithuania and Greece in a  bid to plug staff shortages.

The scheme, which aims to recruit 500 GPs is offering salaries of £90,000 and “generous relocation packages”.

Applicants will be sent to Poland to undergo a 12 week training programme before they take up their jobs in the UK.

The plans aim to address shortages of family doctors, which are said to be causing long waits and an A&E crisis.

The recruitment drive is currently being piloted in Lincolnshire with 25 positions advertised, half of which have already been filled according to medics magazine, Pulse.

Some patients are having to wait a month for a GP appointment, according to a report by the National Audit Office.

The watchdog found that many practices have closures during the working day, with a fifth regularly closing their doors by 3pm.

Dr Kieran Shamrock, medical director at Lincolnshire local medical committee said the new recruitment scheme had been “really successful”.

Joyce Robins, co-director of Patient Concern told The Telegraph: “These really do sound like desperate measures. It is horrifying to think of all the money we have spent training doctors who have left to work in New Zealand and Australia, only for us to have to trawl abroad to find GPs.”

She added: “I fid it terrifying that we have reached this crisis point, with so many people flooding into A&E because they can’t see a GP. I do feel the NHS has taken a wrong turn in letting things get so bad.”