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General Practitioners: Recruitment

Question for Department of Health and Social Care

UIN 200601, tabled on 10 December 2018

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if his Department will make an assessment of the potential merits of introducing a GP university tuition fee remission scheme for newly trained GPs working in areas with a shortage of GPs.

Answered on

13 December 2018

There are currently no plans to assess the potential merits of introducing a general practitioner (GP) university tuition fee remission scheme.

NHS England and Health Education England (HEE) are working together with the profession to increase the GP workforce. This includes measures to boost recruitment, address the reasons why GPs are leaving the profession, and encourage GPs to return to practice.

To encourage GPs to work in areas of the country identified as hard to recruit, NHS England and Health Education England have funded the Targeted Enhanced Recruitment Scheme. The scheme funds a £20,000 salary supplement for GP trainees who commit to spending their three years of speciality training in areas of the country where GP training places have been unfilled for a number of years. There were 122 places in 2016, 144 in 2017 and 265 in 2018. In 2019 a further 276 places are being made available.

The independent General Practice Partnership Review, led by Dr Nigel Watson, which is due to report in early 2019, has given consideration to how to ensure general practice and the partnership model remain attractive for early-career GPs, including the provision of incentives such as additional development opportunities and support for this group.

The interim report of the review is available at the following link:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/gp-partnership-review-interim-report

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