A salaried GP vacancy in Cornwall has been advertised in a music video, The Guardian reports.
“You can negotiate your terms if you keep us free from germs,” Lostwithiel residents promised.
The video was produced by a local community interest company and published on lostwithielneedsadoctor.org.
“Despite the beauty of rural Cornwall and the lively, positive community of Lostwithiel, as a medical practice we have struggled to recruit new GPs through the usual route of adverts in the medical publications,” remaining partner Dr Justin Hendriksz said. “We’re all very aware of the alarming number of GPs leaving the sector, so we know we’re not the only practice to be finding it such a challenge to find the right incoming doctors.”
The South West suffers from a particular shortage of GPs.
Last year a locum rates map revealed that GP locums in Devon and Cornwall were working at higher daily rates than London locums.
Dr Richard Fieldhouse, NASGP chair, said: “It is indeed desperate times when a community comes together in such a heartfelt way to try and fill a post that, in the not too recent past, would have been fought over.
“We often think of deprived inner cities when we think of poor access to health, but rural communities face their own, albeit different, problems.
“Last year, NASGP members supported 30 different struggling practices in the South West with over 3,000 sessions conducted remotely, and this year we are extending that same service to help even more practices across the UK.”