COUNCILLORS unanimously agreed that GPs who accept positions in West Oxfordshire should be offered more money to entice them to move to the area.

Liberal Democrats put a motion before the full district council proposing to ask the constituency’s next MP to lobby the Health Secretary for a ‘rural weighting’ scheme for GPs who accept positions in rural areas where property prices are high.

The scheme proposed would be similar to ‘London weighting’, an allowance paid to people in certain professions to counteract the higher cost of living in the capital.

Liz Leffman suggested, in her motion, that waiting times for GPs were as long as four weeks in practices across the district, and noted that Witney alone is seven doctors short, according to Oxfordshire Clinical Commissioning Group.

The councillor said she believed high property prices may be deterring doctors from accepting GP positions in West Oxfordshire and other rural areas.

She said: “We’re suggesting a rural weighting which encourages GPs to come here, live here and work here.

“They’ve got to invest in GPs, and in places like Oxfordshire house prices are very high.

“Recruiting doctors is a big problem and it’s very hard to see how we can do anything about it without making special exceptions.”

Miss Leffman suggested that strain on GP practices would only result in more pressure on accident and emergency departments.

The motion, put forward by Miss Leffman and fellow Liberal Democrat Andy Graham, was successfully carried yesterday in the council’s Woodgreen offices in Witney.

The next Witney MP will now be urged to lobby the Health Secretary to introduce the new scheme.