DEPRIVATION could be used as a selling point to attract more doctors to a town facing a GP shortage crisis.

In Middlesbrough, many physicians are already struggling to see the sick without having to manage the extra work additional activities have brought with them.

A draft final report titled ‘Future of GP Provision in Middlesbrough’ is recommending that merging practices or encouraging doctors to work as federations were possible solutions.

The North-East Training School had 150 places available for medical students but fewer than 40 applications had been received.

Discussions between councillors and the Cleveland Local Medical Committee revealed that recruitment was one of the biggest issues affecting GP services which could reach crisis point if many retired early or handed in their notice.

Members discussed whether the council could create some form of scholarship for medical students in the area to assist with their university fees and it proposed including articles in medical journals to promote the area’s relatively affordable housing and world class facilities at James Cook University Hospital as well as its high levels of poverty.

“It is well documented that Middlesbrough has a number of areas of high deprivation which affects health and wellbeing," the report said.

“However, rather than see the area’s poor health as negative, it was suggested that doctors could be attracted to the region due to the nature of the types of illnesses that are prevalent in an area which would test a doctor’s skills, broaden their experience and expose them to a wider range of health needs in order to help develop their career.”

The South Tees CCG (Clinical Commissioning Group) recognised that there was a national shortage of GPs related to a difficulty in recruiting and retaining them into active practice and said the national picture is replicated in the North-East and is more pronounced across Teesside.

The draft document, to be presented by the health scrutiny panel at Middlesbrough Town Hall on Tuesday, June 30, also highlighted the work of Eston GP, Dr Paul Chatterjee, who offers work experience to local school children to promote the medical profession as a vocation.