French are easing GP shortage

Foreign GPs are heading for London in increasing numbers to combat a worsening shortage.

Last year, more than 20,000 doctors from 123 countries registered to work in this country.

They are propping up the NHS in the same way foreign nurses have been stemming a recruitment crisis.

The doctor shortage is especially acute in the capital, where many inner-London areas have GP vacancy rates of more than 10 per cent.

The cost of living, poor working premises and large numbers of patients are blamed for the reluctance of British doctors to set up as general practitioners.

But French GPs are disillusioned-with their health service and happy to settle with their families here, according to research published today by the Royal College of General Practitioners. Thirty-one French doctors working in London were asked about their decision to move. They were motivated by:

  • Wanting to work in "exciting" London.
  • Being able to work part-time or carry out research - both of which are difficult in France.
  • Escaping the French practice of taking money from their patients to pay for consultations.
  • Lower tax.

The author of the report, medical sociologist Dr Karen Ballard of King's College London, said: "French GPs really hate having

to take cash at the end of the consultation; and if a patient doesn't get what they want they can just go to the next GP.

"They have to keep the patient happy but it may not be the right thing medically or professionally."

She said GPs in France also felt less important than hospital doctors.

More free time for family and personal pursuits was important, and a big factor was that London had an exciting reputation and was easy to get to by train.

Dr Ballard said: "There are doctors who work here and travel back at weekends."

The French GPs were particularly useful because they were willing to work where British ones would not.

Deputy chairman of the British Medical Association's GP committee Dr Laurence Buckman, said : "French doctors find the bureaucracy over there even worse than ours, and there is substantial over-employment."

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