Doctors and nurses who get training through the NHS and then leave to work abroad or in private healthcare should be made to pay back some of the costs, a Conservative former minister has suggested. Sir Christopher Chope told the Commons that medical professionals should have to pay "back their dues" if they leave the NHS shortly after receiving training, as a means of encouraging staff to stay within the service.
Christchurch MP Sir Christopher told the Commons: "Many people have made the point as well that we are training nurses and doctors at great public expense and then they are leaving the profession, leaving the National Health Service, before in a sense they have paid back their dues. Again, there is a big contrast between what happens here and what happens in the United States.
"I am not saying it should be made conditional upon getting help with your development as a professional and going to university that when you graduate you must be forced to work for a particular employer or the NHS. But if you are going to not work for the NHS then I think you should have a system similar to what they have in the United States where you are expected to pay back some of the costs of that training."
