Jeremy Hunt plans to fine junior doctors who move abroad less than four years after medical school
Health Secretary also plans to train 25 per cent more doctors to cut the need to import foreign medics
JUNIOR doctors could be hit by massive fines if they move abroad less than four years after qualifying, Jeremy Hunt is expected to announce today.
Trainee medics will have to promise to work in the NHS for the minimum period or be made to repay some of the £220,000 it costs taxpayers to train each one.
The Health Secretary is also unveiling a £100m plan to tackle the NHS recruitment crisis by training an extra 1,500 doctors a year - up by 25 per cent.
It is meant to cut the need to import thousands of doctors from abroad.
He wants to make the NHS in England, where a quarter of medics are from overseas, “self-sufficient” by the middle of the next decade.
Mr Hunt will lift the 6,000 cap on the number of native doctors trained in Britain's medical colleges to bring in an extra 1,500 a year.
Targets to attract more working-class students will be introduced.
In return he will demand greater loyalty in a bid to halt the number of NHS-trained doctors doctors who go to work in countries such as Australia, New Zealand and Canada.
A source said: "What we want is for them to guarantee us a period of service in the NHS.
“It’s people who are trained at the taxpayer’s expense and then very quickly move abroad – that’s what we are trying to disincentivise.
“It costs £200,000 to train every doctor, so we think it’s reasonable to expect that the NHS will benefit from that investment.”
But the bid to punish medics who quit the NHS risked a fresh clash with doctors after the on-going contracts dispute.
Dr Mark Porter, chairman of the British Medical Association counil, said: “The Government must tackle the root causes of this workforce crisis and the reasons why so many UK-trained doctors are considering leaving the NHS, rather than forcing doctors to stay in the health service.
“Demotivated, burnt-out doctors who don’t want to be in their jobs will not be good for patients.”
Nigel Edwards, its chief executive of health charity the Nuffield Trust, : “We need to be looking closely at why we are losing skilled doctors to other countries, rather than compelling them to stay.”
Around 5,000 doctors are estimated to leave the UK every year, attracted by higher pay and better hours.
Health chiefs will use the "return of service" model used in the armed forces, under which fighter pilots must serve for 12 years after training that costs £4million.
Mr Hunt will tell the Tory party conference in Birmingham today how he will lift the current cap on the number of medical students, which forces universities to turn away half of applicants.
He wants to end the reliance on doctors from abroad.
He is expected to say: “Overseas doctors do a fantastic job and we have been clear we want EU nationals who are already here to be able to stay post-Brexit.
“But is it right to import doctors from poorer countries that need them while turning away bright home graduates desperate to study medicine?
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“From September 2018, we will train up to 1,500 more doctors every year, increasing the number of medical school places by up to a quarter.
“By the end of the next Parliament the NHS will be self-sufficient in doctors.”
It is thought the recruitment drive will cost £100 million by 2020. But ministers hope it will slash the £1.2billion a year spent on locums, many from overseas.
Diane Abbott, Labour’s Shadow Health Secretary, said: “The idea we can be self-sufficient in medical staff is nonsense.”
The BMA’s chair Mark Porter added: “This announcement falls far short of what is needed. This initiative will not stop the NHS needing to recruit overseas staff.”