The move is expected to eliminate the current shortage of 5000 GPs within a few years.

The news follows a call from the Royal College of General Practitioners for urgent action to halt the exodus from general practice.  

Under the proposals expected to be announced by the government next week, the GP contract will become binding on both parties. A government spokesman said: “GPs have long enjoyed the protection of a contract for life, but they were free to end it at any time by quitting the profession, moving abroad or choosing to retire. These options will no longer be available. Life must mean life.”

From now on, GPs will be expected to practice until they die, with an option to work on after death open to those who wish to take national clinical posts, leadership roles in professional bodies or jobs with the Care Quality Commission.

Acknowledging that GPs would be unable to retire under the new rules, the government said that the benefits of stopping work in later life were “widely exaggerated”.

“All the evidence suggests that people who retire are more like to die before those who are still in work. On that basis forcing GPs to work until they drop may actually improve their life expectancy,” the spokesman said.

Ending GP retirements would have other benefits, including simplified funding and contractual arrangements for general practice, and a modest saving in pension contributions.

GPs will be expected to surrender their passports to remove the temptation to move overseas to work. They would also no longer be able to take holidays abroad, an objection dismissed by the Department of Health as “largely academic”.

The government accepts that not all GPs will welcome the changes, but said it had run out of options for ending the recruitment crisis. Incentive schemes giving GPs the opportunity to work longer hours, collaborate in more meaningful ways or meet helpful people with clipboards have had limited success.

Initiatives to recruit overseas doctors have also suffered setbacks. One ended in chaos earlier this week after an undercover team of NHS England recruitment officers tried to snatch an American doctor from a United Airlines flight, provoking a storm of criticism on social media.

The government says it is still considering other ways to “ease the supply” of new recruits, including a compulsory national service style scheme under which all school-leavers would work as a GP for two years.

“Not only would this be character building for the young people concerned, those who discovered an aptitude for clinical practice might choose to go on to get proper qualifications and stay in the profession,” said the spokesman.

High impact editor: Julian Patterson

@jtweeterson
julian.patterson@networks.nhs.uk