Cash bounty scheme draws trainee doctors to south Cumbria

The scheme, launched last year, promised the payment to candidates who accepted training placements in the county.

So far, it has helped secure 10 trainee GPs for Furness and South Lakeland – areas that had found it difficult to fill vacant training places for several years.

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Barrow GP Dr Geoff Joliffe, of Cumbria’s clinical commissioning group, said: “The scheme is going very well. We have recruited positively to the training posts this year, which bucks the national trend as well as the trend in the North West."

Cumbria was among eight areas across the country to be included in the cash incentive scheme last year.

Both the south and north of the county were identified as areas that would benefit from a cash payment to GPs after a high proportion of training places were found to have remained unfilled since 2012.

The money will be paid over to successful applicants in extra salary and will not have to be paid back provided the trainees remain in place for three years.

It is also hoped the scheme could secure a new generation of family doctors for the area as many GPs go on to find permanent work where they have trained.

In 2015, Furness lost two GP surgeries due to recruitment difficulties.

They were Hartington Street Medical Practice, which merged with Risedale Surgery, when adverts to find a second GP to join Dr Richard Wyatt proved fruitless.

The Nelson Street Surgery, in Dalton, also closed when its sole practitioner, Dr Carol Amos, retired.

Dr Jolliffe added: "We are pleased with both the number and the quality of the trainee applications, which bodes well for filling GP posts in the area in the future – as most trainees tend to stay where they trained.”

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