Company employing overseas GPs to work remotely ‘not endorsed’ by NHS England

A private company employing overseas-based GPs to work remotely for NHS practices has said it wants to reduce their ‘clinical admin burden’.

Provider of remote GP resources Asterix Health made the UK headlines earlier this week, with newspapers including the Telegraph claiming its doctors were ‘working from the beach’.

But Asterix currently employs only eight overseas doctors to work remotely for seven GP practices in England, Pulse found.

The company told Pulse that these doctors complete ‘non-patient-facing clinical tasks’ such as reviewing test results, and if required, will carry out follow-up phone conversations with patients to discuss these test results, with other tasks like triaging patients or acute consultations laying outside their scope. 

They added all their doctors are GMC-registered, meet ‘all regulatory requirements to deliver primary care services’ and undergo an annual appraisal with a five-year revalidation cycle led by NHS England.

On Monday, The Telegraph reported that ‘the NHS has launched a pilot with Asterix Health’ to hire ‘foreign GPs’ to treat patients, ‘as part of the NHS 10-year plan’.

However, NHS England told Pulse that the service has not been endorsed by NHSE and there are no plans for similar services to be rolled out nationally.

The service is aimed at reducing ‘clinical admin burden’ for practices, according to Asterix Health’s chief executive Julian Titz.

He told Pulse: ‘Where appropriate, test result reviews are escalated to, and discussed in face-to-face appointments with an in-practice GP. Patients have the same rights and options available to them as before, including being seen by another member of staff.

‘The GPs, who are based in Australia, Malaysia, India and the UK, are all GMC-registered and the majority trained in the UK.’

The seven practices using the service are in different ICB areas, and ICBs were not involved in the commissioning of Asterix Health’s services, he said. 

NHS England told Pulse that this service is not endorsed by NHS England and that there are ‘no plans’ to roll this out nationally.

An NHS spokesperson told Pulse: ‘This is a pilot run by a private company which is not endorsed by NHS England, and we have no plans to roll this out nationally.’ 

Pulse has asked NHS England to clarify if it has any further regulatory concerns with the model of employing overseas being used by Asterix Health. 

Asterix Health also claimed that the service is ‘solving the biggest problem in healthcare: the lack of qualified doctors’.

But, according to the BMA, one of the biggest issues facing general practice is GP unemployment, with most recently official data showing that GP job adverts have nearly halved since 2022, emphasising the dwindling job market as newly qualified doctors seek work.

BMA GP committee chair Dr Katie Bramall said: ‘The 10-year Plan for the NHS is heavily reliant on some things which technology and remote working cannot solve. 

‘In-person consultations with a fully qualified GP are irreplaceable – there is nothing like being in the room with your patient to provide care.’