British doctors will be given priority for NHS jobs under plans to make the health service “self-sufficient” in staff.
A ten-year plan, due to be published this week, involves hiring no more than one in ten NHS recruits from overseas, as the UK Government promises to reform the current system in which two-thirds of new doctors come from overseas.
According to a report by the General Medical Council (GMC), 63% of doctors who joined the medical register in 2022 qualified overseas. The NHS currently employs doctors from 168 countries including India, Egypt, Ireland, Nigeria, and Pakistan.
Doctors will also be directed to prioritise helping patients return to work during their treatment, as part of a wider effort to reduce welfare spending.
Work coaches will be stationed in GP surgeries, while NHS bosses will also be given targets to help sick patients return to work.
An internal government briefing on the plan, which is yet to be finalised, has been seen by The Times.
The plan aims to create a “neighbourhood health service” as well as a “choice charter” that promises patients greater say over where and how they are treated, the newspaper reported.
Meanwhile, hospitals will be given “new duties” to employ staff from their local areas in a bid to boost employment around the country.
The plan looks to create a “self-sufficient” workforce by 2035, saying that less than 10 per cent of new recruits should be from overseas.
It comes as NHS doctors and nurses are considering a fresh round of strikes amid an ongoing row over pay.
Doctors in training, formerly known as junior doctors, said their cries have “fallen on deaf ears”.
Resident doctor members of the BMA are currently voting on staging further walkouts, with the ballot set to close on July 7.
The last bout of strikes caused months of upheaval across the NHS and led to almost 1.5 million appointments being cancelled or rescheduled.
Under the new plans, put forward by the government, British medical graduates will be prioritised for junior doctor posts.
Despite a recent increase in medical school numbers, which has begun to reverse a long-standing failure to train enough doctors, career opportunities in the NHS have not kept up.
The plan criticises an expansion of training without the expansion of postgraduate training places, saying this is an “unacceptable way to treat doctors”.
It instead pledges to prioritise “UK medical graduates and other doctors who have worked in the NHS for a significant period for foundation and specialty training”.
