Fears over a crisis shortage of family doctors in inner-city Bradford have prompted health chiefs to launch a recruitment drive to find more young GPs.
A total of £300,000 will be spent each year for the next three years under Bradford's pioneering Health Action Zone employing half a dozen GPs in deprived parts of the city.
The newly-qualified doctors will work with established GPs but will not be expected to buy into partnerships.
The move has been taken because of concern a large number of doctors, many of whom arrived in this country from the sub-continent about 30 years ago, will retire in the next ten years.
Fears are growing there could be problems recruiting replacements to deprived parts of Bradford which could put huge demands on existing GPs, driving up the size of patient lists.
John Hearnshaw, senior planning manager at Bradford Health Authority, said the newly-qualified GPs would bring the latest ideas and innovations to enhance patient care and would gain from working alongside experienced practitioners.
It was hoped they would get a feel for working in the area and want to stay on, and some would have Asian backgrounds.
"We are in competition with other parts of the country and Bradford, with its possibly unwarranted but dowdy national image, isn't going to be the first career choice for many newly-qualified GPs," he said.
"At the same time we are anticipating that a number of the doctors from the Indian sub-continent who came across in the 60s and early 70s will reach 60 in the next ten years and will retire after a lifetime of service to the community.
"We want to train up a cadre of GPs who can familiarise themselves with inner-city practice and are enthusiastic to take that on. We hope they will hit the ground running.
"If we have got an older GP with a newly-qualified doctor we have got the right mix of new ideas and long-term experience and a little of both will rub off on each other."
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