The REC has called for wider recognition of the role of agency supply doctors, in the wake of the government’s announcement that it is launching a worldwide advertising campaign to recruit thousands of foreign doctors for the NHS. The government is failing to make the best use of supply doctors, who could play a ‘vital role’ in solving the short-term needs of the health service, said the REC.

Last year the government outlined its NHS Plan, promising to employ 7,500 more consultants and 2,000 new GPs by the end of 2004. The government has now conceded that it will have to target doctors in the EU, Australia, Canada, the US and Asia in order to meet targets, and to provide care during the six years that it will take to train new doctors in the UK. The Department of Health has claimed that ‘the biggest constraint the NHS faces today is no longer a shortage of financial resources. It is a shortage of human resources.’

But the solution may be closer to hand, said the REC. ‘At the moment we have foreign doctors who are already in the UK and have passed their Professional Linguistic Assessment Board exam,’ said Jan Bassom, vice chairman of the Confederation’s medical division.

Bassom said that many of these doctors are currently struggling to find an initial job that would allow them to secure their General Medical Council registration, which in turn would allow them to practise in the UK as a supply doctor or in a permanent position. ‘It is this vital resource that is currently untapped, and could significantly alleviate the problem at a time when a solution is urgently needed.’ Agency supply doctors are ‘a highly valuable and flexible resource’, said Bassom, but are ‘not given the recognition they deserve. Many hospitals could not survive and deliver the current level of care without the aid of agency doctors.’