NHS to spend £100 Million to Recruit Primary Care Doctors from Abroad

The U.K.’s National Health Service (NHS) has announced a plan to hire 2,000 to 3,000 general practitioners (GPs) from overseas as in an effort to recruit a total of 5,000 new GPs by 2020. NHS England will pay up to eight recruitment agencies £100 million over the next three years to identify international candidates, prioritizing doctors from the European Union. This initiative aims to address the increasing workload faced by the GP workforce in the face of staff shortages. Currently, one in five GPs practicing in the U.K. are from overseas.

• NHS launches £100m drive to recruit foreign GPs
• NHS to spend £100m bringing in up to 3,000 GPs from abroad