Make returning to practice easier for GPs, says new RCGP chair

Returning to work must be made less “tortuous and difficult” for GPs, the incoming chairwoman of the Royal College of General Practitioners has said.

Speaking before she formally took on her new role on 16 November, Maureen Baker said that she planned to approach key stakeholders, including the Department of Health and NHS England, to discuss how returning to work could be made easier for GPs. She said that since the creation of the national performers list for GPs it had become more difficult for GPs who had taken a career break of more than two years to return to work.

“We now have a very tortuous and difficult process for returning back onto the performers list, which normally involves an exam and working for very low remuneration for an indefinite period of time,” Baker said.

She warned that hundreds of GPs, especially women who had taken time out to have children and GPs who were working abroad, were being put off returning to work in the NHS. “There are colleagues—especially who are working in good jobs in other countries—who would like to come back to the UK, but they look at these processes and think, ‘I’m not doing that,’” Baker said.

She argued that the money spent on training GPs was wasted if they were prevented from returning to work. She also highlighted an “inequality” between UK graduates wishing to return to work and doctors who had trained in EU countries who were allowed to go onto the performers list without facing an exam.

Baker said that she intended to run a workshop to bring the “appropriate players,” such as the health department and NHS England, to the table. “It might also be worth talking to other professional bodies. I believe there are similar problems in nursing, so we might speak to the Royal College of Nursing about this,” she said.

Baker said she would also like to see a list of principles that could govern the process. “One of the principles would be that patients and taxpayers deserve to be treated by the doctors that are trained [through their taxes] by them,” she said. “I would also like to see a principle around a supported, proportionate return to safe practice. I think one could argue that there are a number of routes to what that might be.”

Baker said that there could also be scope for allowing deprived areas and underdoctored areas to devise their own support schemes for returners so that they could “attract GPs into areas of particular need.”

She argued that encouraging more GPs to return to work would have a positive effect on patients. “We’re really struggling to meet demand in general practice at the moment—we really see that in demand for appointments. I firmly believe that if we are able to get a short term surge into the medical workforce that could have a really big impact for patients.”

Commenting on the issue, an NHS England spokesman said, “NHS England is aware of the issue and will look in detail at any potential improvements to make it less bureaucratic for doctors to resume practice. We will continue to work with professional bodies to improve recruitment, retention, and return to practice.

He added, “Patient safety is the priority, and any doctor returning to practice would need to demonstrate up to date skills and knowledge and their fitness to practise.”