TY - JOUR T1 - GP induction and refresher and retainer schemes: are they cost-effective? JF - British Journal of General Practice JO - Br J Gen Pract SP - 46 LP - 47 DO - 10.3399/bjgp14X676582 VL - 64 IS - 618 AU - Michael Harris AU - Jim Morison AU - Paul Main Y1 - 2014/01/01 UR - http://bjgp.org/content/64/618/46.abstract N2 - There are many reasons why doctors may not wish to commit fully to a lifetime’s work in the NHS. However, the early loss of GPs is contributing to the impending GP workforce crisis. The Retainer and Induction & Refresher (I&R) schemes help to keep or reintroduce GPs in the workforce, but at a time of intense budgetary restrictions there is pressure to review the limited funding that supports them. This article analyses how cost-effective they are.The Department of Health (DoH) has set a target that one-half of all UK medical graduates entering postgraduate specialty training should go into GP training.1 However, according to the Centre for Workforce Intelligence (CfWI),2 we are 550 short of the target, therefore undertraining GPs by approximately 18% per year. It is possible to increase the number of UK GPs by: increasing the number of students in UK medical schools and then GP training;raising the number of medical graduates who go through GP training;attracting more EU-trained GPs and providing them with an induction to prepare them for UK general practice;bringing more GPs back to practice after a career break; andretaining more GPs who, principally because of domestic commitments, can only undertake a small amount of paid professional work.The first two options have significant time and cost implications. It costs £488 730 for a student to complete undergraduate medical school and then GP training,3 while the cost of a GP training programme for a medical graduate is £196 500 (£11 600 per subsequent working year using … ER -