Shortages of GPs in Britain do not need to be met by further recruitment of overseas doctors from outside Europe, the government’s official migration advisers have said.
They also rejected claims there is a national shortage of nurses that needs to be met by further overseas recruitment.
The home secretary-appointed migration advisory committee (MAC) does, however, say that some key health service jobs, such as paramedics and clinical radiology consultants, and some senior roles in the digital economy should be officially declared shortage occupations in Britain. This would allow qualified overseas staff to be recruited in these areas
But the committee said extra doctors from outside Europe did not need to be recruited through Britain’s points-based skilled migration system to meet the shortage of GPs.
Instead, it says there is no shortage of medical students and the Department of Health should instead focus on providing incentives to ensure they become GPs rather than consultants. The experts say they received no evidence of a national shortage of nurses.
The DoH told the committee that 3,280 trainee GPs were needed every year but they are falling short of this target by 400 a year.
Health officials said the long-term shortage of GPs was caused by a failure to attract sufficient numbers of trainees among medical graduates, the difficulties of attracting new doctors to specific parts of Britain as older GPs retire, a ‘work-life’ balance issue caused by the increased ‘feminisation’ of the workforce, and a shift to salaried GPs.
The DoH says it wants to see a ratio of 0.7 doctors per 1,000 of the population. This ratio was almost achieved in 2009 but has since been falling.
The MAC’s recommendations follow the first review for two years of the official shortage occupation lists under which British companies and the public sector can recruit skilled graduate level labour from outside the European Union. Currently the number of people coming to work in Britain through the tier two skilled occupation route forms only a very small proportion of the overall immigration flow into Britain.
The committee, which is appointed by the home secretary, also says there remains a serious shortage of experienced staff, including to help small firms expand in the rapidly growing digital economy. The experts say a small number of senior jobs in digital technology, limited to people with at least five years’ experience, should be added to the shortage occupation list.
The MAC recommends that 10 new occupations should be added to the list, including paramedics, clinical radiology consultants and old-age psychiatry consultants. They also say that specialist overhead lineworkers in the electricity industry should be added to the list.
Prof David Metcalf, the committee’s chairman, said the solution to the shortage of GPs lay in the hands of the DoH as there was no shortage of medical students in Britain. Initiatives were already being developed to make it more attractive for medical students to become GPs, he said. Metcalf added that the DoH had known since 2009 that the ratio of GPs to patients has been declining.
He said there was a national shortage of about 1,200 paramedics, who have started to work for GPs as well as the ambulance service. Currently many paramedics shortages are being met by temporary staff from Australia. The shortage is likely to last about five years.
“We recognise that there is a shortfall in the numbers of GPs being trained but consider that the solution to this is in the hands of the health service,” said Professor Metcalf. “The health sector told us that, nationally, they do not need any jobs in nursing to be on the shortage list but we agreed with their assessment that there is presently a shortage of skilled paramedics.”
The MAC recommends that a number of health jobs on the list should be removed as the shortage has been resolved. This category includes haematology consultants and therapeutic radiographers.
Metcalf said listing of digital economy jobs would be restricted to those being recruited by small companies of below 250 staff to avoid a mass switch by the large digital employers away from an ‘intra-company route’ under which thousands of IT specialists are brought to Britain, especially from India.
The digital economy jobs to be listed include product managers, data scientists, senior developers and cyber-security specialists.
