Trust was top spender on foreign GPs

Mar 3 2008 by Laura Sharpe, Liverpool Daily Post

HALTON and St Helens PCT spends the most money across England and Wales to employ foreign doctors.

Freedom of Information requests submitted to all 152 PCTs revealed 17, including St Helens and Halton and North Lancashire, had employed overseas GPs at some point over the past two years.

Halton and St Helens spent £366,042.50 employing eight GPs for a 12-month period.

A spokeswoman said: “The decision to purchase the services provided by Devon Doctors was on the basis of a full and robust evaluation of their bid and their ability to provide a quality, safe and affordable service to Halton residents.” Devon Doctors is a not-for profit organisation which manages out-of-hour GP contracts.

Trusts have spent more than £1m in the past two years employing doctors from countries including Germany and Lithuania.

The reliance on overseas doctors stems from the revision of GP contracts in April, 2004. This allowed doctors to opt out of providing 24 hour care in return for a £6,000 salary cut.

Last year 119 overseas doctors covered out-of-hours shifts across England and Wales.

The amount spent in 2006-07 was £879,149, a rise of 244% on the previous year’s total of £255,530.