A PILOT scheme to recruit and retain GPs in the area by improving learning opportunities has been launched in East Lancashire.

It aims to increase the numbers of medical students on placements at practices in the area and give more established GPs a tutoring role.

The pilot is being run in Blackburn and Darwen by Montague Health Centre GP Neil Smith and it is hoped to be adopted in the rest of East Lancashire and the North West in coming months.

The students will be given broader training than usual and scheme leaders hope they will be more encouraged to stay in the area when they qualify.

The number of practices which have medical students attached has already increased from three to eight and the capacity is 12.

The same system is being adopted in Burnley where they are currently recruiting for a lead GP to work with Neil to take the project forward.

Dr Smith said: "There is a shortage of GPs nationally and East Lancashire is constantly competing with others to attract and retain GPs. It is part of a wider initiative to develop GP practices as learning environments for all staff."

Some of the features of the new scheme include allowing students access to patients in the community, so patients spend less time in hospital.

It will allow them to learn a wider range of skills to complement what they experience in hospitals or clinical skills labs and increase their understanding of local health factors.

Scheme organisers are working towards a North West network of GP undergraduate educators who would examine and be involved in developing the curriculum.

Next year, the Early Years Experience scheme will come in so that students in the first two years of their medical school course will have placements so they can learn about all aspects of community services.

Dr Smith said: "This scheme will enable us to establish a close link with students early on in their courses so they are more likely to return for placements later in their courses, say at years four and five, with the aim of recruiting them as GPs at the end of their courses.

"Of the last 18 consultants appointed to medical and surgical posts in East Lancashire Hospitals, 16 of them came as junior doctors, therefore a positive experience early on in careers is very important."