General Practitioners: Migrant Workers

(asked on 12th September 2017) - View Source

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what his future plans are for the recruitment of GPs from overseas.


Answered by
Steve Brine Portrait
Steve Brine
This question was answered on 18th September 2017

NHS England aims to recruit at least 2,000 doctors into general practice by 2020/21. This compares to an initial target of 500 doctors over the same period of time.

In order to meet this target, NHS England is expanding its current recruitment programme of doctors from the European Economic Area (EEA) whose general practitioner (GP) training is recognised in the United Kingdom under European law and who already get automatic recognition to join the General Medical Council’s (GMC) GP register.

NHS England is also establishing a Framework Agreement of International Recruitment Providers, to identify potential overseas doctors and support them through the recruitment process, and a GP international recruitment office to run the recruitment operation.

Finally, the Royal College of General Practitioners is working with the GMC to review the curriculum, training and assessment processes for GPs trained outside the EEA, starting with Australia, to identify whether the GP registration process can be streamlined for those doctors whose training is seen as equivalent to the UK GP programme.

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