Critics are raising fresh questions about the direction of the health service under Wes Streeting, after new details emerged about plans to expand the use of doctors working remotely from overseas for British patients.
Under proposals linked to the health service’s long-term reforms, patients in the UK are already being treated virtually by clinicians based in countries such as Australia, India and Malaysia, part of a drive by National Health Service leaders to “free up” domestic GPs and boost productivity.
Supporters say the approach could relieve overstretched surgeries, but opponents argue it risks hollowing out community-based medicine, wasting public money on private contractors and pushing the NHS further toward what some have described as a remote, call-centre-style model of care.
The strategy aligns with Labour’s intention to recruit overseas GPs and allow British-trained doctors to continue NHS work while living abroad, meaning consultations may increasingly take place over phone or video rather than in person.
That prospect has drawn sharp criticism from across the political and medical spectrum. Stuart Andrew warned that “the whole idea of a GP is built around continuity and knowing your community, not being thousands of miles away”, adding that outsourcing care overseas could undermine trust and the quality of treatment.
The NHS has already launched a pilot with Asterix Health, which markets itself to doctors worldwide by promising NHS roles “without having to relocate” and offering tutoring for English language exams. The firm says most of its clinicians are “ex-UK GPs”, arguing the scheme keeps doctors in the system who might otherwise have left entirely.
Asterix claims to be the only company approved to employ doctors remotely from abroad on behalf of the health service and is currently advertising for a “remote NHS GP” based in Malaysia, stating, “Work for the UK NHS without leaving Malaysia.” Duties include triaging patients, reviewing test results and letters and conducting telephone consultations, with applicants told they can work from home or from an office in Kuala Lumpur.
Its website highlights one clinician, Dr Zilal Kamel, who said the arrangement had been “perfect” for her family life, allowing her to treat UK patients in the morning and be home for dinner in the evening.
Medical leaders have been far less enthusiastic. Dr Katie Bramall-Stainer of the British Medical Association said there were hundreds of UK-trained GPs seeking work domestically and insisted ministers had been advised to direct funding toward face-to-face care at home.
She said the ten-year reforms relied too heavily on technology and that in-person consultations were “irreplaceable”, stressing there was “nothing like being in the room with your patient to provide care”.
Former Conservative health secretary Steve Barclay also urged caution, saying limited remote work by retired British GPs might be acceptable, but reliance on doctors trained abroad raised “red flags” about cultural understanding and familiarity with how the NHS operates.
A December report added fuel to the controversy by finding the UK employs twice as many foreign doctors and nurses as the Western average, a statistic campaigners described as a “wake-up call” to expand domestic training rather than deepen reliance on overseas staff.
Speaking to the Telegraph, Dennis Reed of the campaign group Silver Voices likened the model to “offshoring people’s health to call centres abroad”, warning that life-changing clinical decisions were increasingly being made without full knowledge of a patient’s background.
He said, “I think we’d all like the luxury of being able to do our jobs from any location, including from the beach with the waves lapping and perhaps a cocktail on hand, but I really worry about the risks of this kind of approach.”
The policy push stems from the NHS’s “Fit for the Future 10-Year Plan”, unveiled last summer on the same day that Chancellor Rachel Reeves became visibly emotional in the Commons. The 169-page document pledged to “explore opportunities to deploy UK-registered professionals working in other countries, to provide remote services to NHS patients”, arguing it would let the service “tap into global talent, deliver 24/7 access and increase productivity”.
Asterix currently employs eight doctors spread across Australia, Malaysia, India and the UK and works with seven British practices serving around 250,000 patients, with ambitions to grow further. Its recruitment process includes covering the costs of registration with the medical regulator.
A spokesman for the Department of Health and Social Care defended the reforms, saying the ten-year strategy was moving healthcare “from analogue to digital” while insisting that surgeries must still offer face-to-face appointments to those who want them. The department added that 3,000 GPs had been recruited in the past year, primary care funding had risen by £1.1bn and patient satisfaction was beginning to improve.
Asterix’s chief executive, Julian Titz, rejected claims that the scheme was outsourcing care, arguing it simply returned NHS-trained doctors to the workforce and freed UK-based GPs from paperwork so they could see patients in person.
Streeting was approached for comment, but as the debate intensifies, critics continue to ask whether the policy represents pragmatic modernisation or another costly experiment that risks eroding the traditional, local character of general practice in Britain.
Worth reading in full in the Telegraph: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2026/02/07/nhs-hires-foreign-gps-to-work-from-the-beach/
Main Image: For illustration purposes only.
