DOCTORS could be offered a £10,000 incentive to work in Essex as part of plans to solve a recruitment crisis in primary care across the county.
Proposals for the 'golden handshake' have been made possible after Health Education England pledged £400,000 to tackle the shortage of GPs and nurses in the county.
Dr Brian Balmer, chief executive of North and South Essex Local Medical committees, said: "We're currently discussing numerous ways to improve staffing levels as we are running short of doctors and nurses and there are several things we are going to use the funding for and this is just one of many options.
"The focus will be on doctors and nurses but the money could also be used for management, administration staff, career development, education and training."
Braintree and Tendring have been identified as two priority areas likely to be targeted with funds for the 'golden handshake', but it could also be used to pay for more nurses, management staff and training programmes.
The money has become available after the Essex Local Medical Committee bid for funding from Health Education England that was offered to commissioning groups to spend on long-term and short-term measures to plug the gaps in recruitment.
This could come in the form of hiring more locum GPs and training more practice nurses.
NHS England, the Essex Area Team, the Essex Workforce Partnership and Essex Local Medical Committee will be holding talks over the next few weeks to decide how the funding will be allocated.
The news comes a week after the Chronicle revealed a surgery in Chelmsford was forced to let a popular GP go due to cuts from central government.
Whitley House on Writtle Road was unable to renew Dr Daniel Haroon's contract because of the withdrawal of a top fund of £150,000 over seven years, an amount given to surgeries since 2004 after a similar GP recruitment crisis.
"It's great this money has become available, but it seems crazy that we've had to lose a doctor at a time when there's a recruitment crisis in the county," said Amy Brass, practice manager at Whitley House.
"There are a lot of contradictory initiatives in the NHS at the moment and this is another example of money being taken out of primary care and then another pot becomes available.
"But a £10,000 lump sum is not likely to make a great deal of difference; it seems to be a short-term knee-jerk reaction.
"There needs to be a more long-term solution to the primary care recruitment crisis. If the Government started addressing the reasons why doctors don't want to be GPs we wouldn't have a recruitment crisis that we need to solve," she added.
