Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he is taking to recruit more GPs from overseas to the NHS.

In August 2017, NHS England announced an expansion to the existing international general practitioner (GP) recruitment programme to secure at least 2,000 appropriately qualified doctors from overseas by 2020. This will build on the learning gathered through the four pilot sites.

To support increased GP recruitment to the National Health Service from overseas, NHS England have taken the following steps:

- Established an international recruitment framework, to make it easier to contract with recruitment agencies to source candidates;

- Appointed recruitment agencies to begin sourcing candidates from European Economic Area countries to work in areas of greatest need across England;

- Produced materials for recruitment agencies to use to promote the local areas being recruited to, and highlight the benefits of living and working in England;

- Developing a focussed communications and marketing strategy to attract overseas GPs to work in England;

- Contracted with companies to provide English language training to help doctors reach the level required to work in the United Kingdom; and

- Building on feedback from the pilot sites, they have also developed a tailored learning and development pathway for international GPs supportive including induction/observer placement in a practice working with an assigned clinical supervisor.

In July 2018, the Government lifted the cap on Tier 2 visas for doctors and nurses. This means there should be no longer any risk of visas being denied for international GPs because they have breached the cap.