MONEY from developers should be used to help entice more trainee GPs into Thurrock, a councillor has suggested.

Latest figures show Thurrock has the highest number of patients per GP in the country. Like many other areas the borough is struggling to recruit new GPs against a backdrop of GPs retiring and limited revenue to entice replacements.

At a meeting of Thurrock's people scrutiny and scrutiny committee on Tuesday, portfolio holder for good grtowth, Cllr Lee Watson, suggested health bosses should liaise with the council to see if there was a possibility to make use of cash given to local communities by developers to support local instructure.

Cllr Watson said she would welcome approaches from the NHS regional management about possibilities that the money, known as Section 106 agreement contributions for services including education and health when planning permission is granted, could be used to help make working in Thurrock more attractive to new doctors.

Her comments were welcomed by committee chair Cllr Neil Speight who said: "There is a considerable opportunity in Thurrock to make best use of S106 money.

"Why would a bright you physician who has just spent seven years at university necessarily want to come to Thurrock? What might attract them more is if we do a bit of joined up thinking and ask what would attract a GP?

"It may be using some of this S106 money could be better used to create facilities where we have specialisations as well as general practice. I just think we've got to be adventurous. If we do what we've always done we're going to get what we've always got."

A flagship fellowship programme within the Thurrock area which offered an enhanced scheme to newly qualified GPs taking roles in Thurrock practices and allowing them to specialise in areas they were interested in has now been put on hold due to national funding being withdrawn but ways to reinstate it are being sought.

William Guy, of Primary Care at the Mid and South Essex Integrated Care Board gave an update to the committee, he said "We recognise there is significant work still to go.

"What will have the greatest long term benefit for Thurrock is the growth of training practices. The traditional way of training the next generation of GPs is for them to go into general practice for about three years and train to be fully qualified GPs.

"What we do know is when GPs are trained in an area they tend to stay in that area.

"Many people will stay their entire careers in close proximity to where they have been trained.

"The number of training practices and the number of trainers within those practices has increased this year alone and we're seeing an upward trend in the number of trainees coming through that programme, a 70 per cent increase in the last few years and we expect that to continue because of the commitment from practices to take those roles on."