Leicester city NHS faces crisis, after a £250,000 scheme has failed to temp GPs to come and work there. Local health managers are now deciding what else they can do to tempt family doctors to come and work in the city where nearly one third of the GPs are due to retire in the next 10 years. Considering options, they have suggested that one way out could be to recruit from abroad.
Money for the scheme was put up last year by NHS England and a total of 17 practices successfully bid for a share of the cash, although one has since withdrawn. The money was targeted at surgeries with a significant number of patients whose first language is not English and those with higher levels of deprivation among patients. An applying practice also had to show that it had been unable to recruit to GP vacancies in the past 12 months. It was hoped the "golden hello" scheme would increase the number of doctors and improve services for patients.
But in a report to the Leicester City clinical commissioning group's (CCG) primary care commissioning group Sara Prema, director of strategy said only three practices had successfully been able to recruit. Five practices decided to try and recruit jointly, eight tried doing it themselves.
She reportedly said traditional methods such as advertising in medical journals and on the website NHS Jobs appeared to have failed to attract applicants. Ms Prema questioned whether the scheme should now be "paused" to get advice on a new approach to recruitment.
However, city GP Dr Azhar Farooqi, who is also chairman of the Leicester City CCG, reportedly said: "I don't think we can drop this. Seven day working for GPs will no doubt be a post election push and we need to think outside the box."
He suggested one way of attracting doctors might be to look at ways of combining clinical and academic opportunities in partnership with local universities.
Colleague Dr Umesh Roy told the Leicester Mercury that recruitment nationally was difficult and committee chairman Daxa Patel questioned whether recruitment from abroad should be considered.
Nick Carter, vice chairman of the CCG, added: "We need to call in expertise to see how the city is marketed as well as the attractiveness of being a GP."
The committee agree advertising should go ahead and advice sought on marketing the positions.
