GPs returning to work in Britain's National Health Service (NHS) are to be offered “golden hellos” worth up to £10 000. The announcement came as the British Medical Association (BMA) warned of a critical shortage of GPs and poor morale among practising GPs.
Dr. John Chisholm, chair of the BMA's GP committee, said his group has been urging adoption of several measures to help alleviate the shortage of family practitioners. “We know that there is a substantial number of doctors qualified to work in general practice but not doing so,” he says. The situation mirrors that in Canada, where large numbers of family medicine residencies are now going unfilled.
Last November the Department of Health began offering similar incentive packages to family doctors joining the NHS and an extra £5000 if they work in areas underserviced by doctors, such as inner cities. The bonuses were part of a £135-million program to increase the number of GPs practising within the NHS by 2000 doctors by 2004. Last year, the number of GPs increased by 18. “There are difficulties,” Health Minister John Hutton told medical students at St. George's Hospital Medical School in London. “No one is pretending otherwise.”
Britain's family doctors earn an average annual income of around £74 552 (Can$185 000); hospital doctors are expected to earn £90 000 a year through a new contract signed this year.
Many GP offices are struggling with increased patient loads under a government-imposed “compulsory allocation” program designed to ensure that everyone in the country has access to a doctor. Meanwhile, the government has set a target for surgeries to offer patients an appointment with a GP within 48 hours by 2004; a recent BMA poll found that 46% of GPs would not recommend general practice to undergraduate or junior doctors, and 48% are planning to retire by age 60. — Mary Helen Spooner, West Sussex, UK