Let SAS doctors work in general practice, says GMC

Rules should be relaxed to allow thousands of skilled doctors in non-training posts to work in general practice, the General Medical Council has recommended.

In its annual report on the workforce, the regulator said that specialty and associate specialist (SAS) and locally employed (LE) doctors offer a “fantastic resource” and partial solution to the fragile workforce in general practice, which urgently needs bolstering.1 The GMC’s latest workforce data show that numbers of SAS and LE doctors have grown at almost six times the rate of GPs in the past five years. If that trend continues, they will represent the largest group …