CASH incentives of £20,000 for doctors who fill long term vacancies - set to be dished out in other parts of the country - would not solve Cumbria's recruitment crisis, a leading GP has said.

News emerged this week that cash bonuses are expected to be paid to qualified GPs who take jobs in areas suffering difficulties filling empty posts such as South Yorkshire and Leicester.

But Dr Geoff Joliffe, lead GP for Furness, said while additional cash has not yet been promised for Cumbria, it would be unlikely to provide an instant fix to the difficulties in drawing new family doctors into the area.

Dr Joliffe, a partner at Barrow's Risedale Surgery and the lead commissioning GP for Furness on Cumbria's clinical commissioning group, said: "There are difficulties in recruiting to Barrow and to Cumbria in general. It is a real issue.

"We don't know whether we are going to get any money to help recruit doctors for this area but it's not as straightforward as offering extra cash."

The £20,000 welcome for GPs has been offered by NHS England for Leicester - an area said to need an additional 12 doctors to cover 17 surgeries.

The money would be given to new recruits on top of their annual salary, providing they remain in post for at least two years.

The number of GP surgeries in Cumbria has reduced by five to 78 in the past year alone.

In Furness, difficulties recruiting new doctors have resulted in the closure of Dalton's Nelson Street Surgery following the retirement of sole practitioner Dr Carol Amos last year and the merger of Barrow's Hartington Street Medical Practice with Risedale Surgery, in Gloucester Street.

Dr Jolliffe added: "There are many more things that the government could do to make the job itself more attractive.

"At the moment, it is deeply unattractive and we have more people moving out of the profession or retiring early than there are new GPs coming in.

"This is what I always wanted to, and I will always help the people of Barrow who are my patients. 

"But we need to think differently about how we provide healthcare in this area so that more doctors want to come to work here in the future."