Ministers and GPs are discussing a plan to ease the shortage of family doctors by making it easier for thousands who have left the NHS to return to work.
Dr Maureen Baker, the new chair of the Royal College of GPs (RCGPs), wants to create "a short-term surge" in GP numbers by targeting female GPs who ceased practising in order to have children and family doctors who have moved abroad temporarily.
Baker has opened talks with the Department of Health and NHS England about lifting some of the barriers that make it difficult for GPs who have not practised in England for two years to get permission to resume treating patients.
The NHS was wasting money by spending £500,000 educating and training GPs and then making it too onerous for those who want to return to practice after a break to do so, she said. "There is an urgent, desperate need for extra GPs. But the rules about these sorts of GPs coming back into primary care are too rigid at the moment.
"There are several thousand GPs who are currently not working as GPs in the NHS; a significant proportion of whom, if there were the right incentives and the right route back into practice, would come back in," Baker told the Guardian in her first interview as she prepares to replace Dr Clare Gerada as head of the RCGPs.
Baker said the health minister Dr Dan Poulter "was very interested" in the idea when she talked to him about it, and she expected Jeremy Hunt, the health secretary, to be "very receptive" once details have been finalised.
Hunt has acknowledged that a lack of GPs is one reason why family doctors are struggling to cope with rising demand for appointments and pressure on A&E units. Baker's plan to entice "GP returners" is separate to the RCGPs' plea to increase the GP workforce by 10,000 from the current 33,000 and health secretary Jeremy Hunt's pledge of an extra 2,000.
"If we could get 1,000 or maybe 2,000 [more] GPs over the next two to three years that would really have an impact for patients because we don't have enough at the moment. The benefits could include more appointments and more services for patients, making it easier to deliver extended opening hours, less pressure on A&E units and less pressure on GPs, who are already up over their eyes", added Baker, who wants NHS England to fund the scheme.
Bringing 1,000 GPs back into the workforce, on their average salary of £80,000 and with them working part-time because many would be mothers of young children, would cost just £40m a year, Baker estimates – "a tiny amount" compared to the NHS's £110bn budget, she said.
Currently GPs who want to return after two years away must first gain entry to a local "performers list" of approved family doctors. However, in order to ensure skills and knowledge are up to date, this can involve an interview, sitting an exam and working in a surgery for no or little money during a period of supervision.
"It's an incredibly long and torturous process," said Baker. "If I'm a GP in Australia with a job and a house and I'm looking at that, I'm thinking 'I don't think I will come back'."
The rules mean that a GP who has been practising medicine in Australia for three years will have to overcome bureaucratic hurdles, whereas a doctor from an EU country who speaks English will be admitted automatically onto a performers list, despite their unfamiliarity with the NHS, she said.
An NHS England spokesman said: "Doctors need to be able to demonstrate to the General Medical Council, provider organisations and patients and public that they are up to date and fit to practice. NHS England is working with the GMC and professional bodies to support the processes."
The Department of Health said any changes to the current system would still leave returning GPs facing an assessment of their skills. "We are always interested in looking at ways to increase GP numbers. However, patient safety is paramount and NHS England needs to make sure that doctors returning to practice have the requisite skills and knowledge. This requires an assessment of each doctor's needs."
