Lamb: Government failing abysmally on GP target

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Last week a study highlighted that almost a million EU workers could leave the UK after Brexit simply because they “feel less welcome and valued” in the country and in their jobs.

The impact that is going to have on our health service and the wider economy is severe.

Today, it emerged that the Government is going to spend £100 million recruiting GPs from abroad .

More than half of the Government’s 5000 targeted increase in the number of GPs are going to be recruited in this way.  Other health workers will also be sought.

As well as the £100 million, each GP who comes from abroad will cost  taxpayers £1000 per year because of the Immigration Skills Charge. Surely the sensible thing to do would be to exempt the NHS when we need these people so badly. In fact, why have it at all? It seems to me like a silly nonsense to convince the Daily Mail that we’re doing something about immigration.

Norman Lamb said that the whole thing was absurd.

This is evidence of the abysmal lack of progress made by the government in meeting its pledge to recruit an extra 5,000 GPs by 2020.

Enormous sums that could have been spent on improving patient care will instead now be paid to recruitment agencies.

It is absurd that the NHS will also be hit with a hefty bill for recruiting doctors from abroad as a result of the government’s immigration skills charge.

Doctors and nurses should immediately be made exempt from this charge that is set to cost our health service millions of pounds.