Government plans US-style ‘hospitalist’ doctors

The NHS will introduce a new class of generalist hospital doctors – inspired by the American “hospitalist” role – by the end of the decade, according to a leak of the government’s upcoming workforce plan.

Draft plans seen by HSJ propose the introduction of hospitalists to help care for complex patients who do not neatly fit into a single specialty. Other proposals include a Teach First-style scheme to push more GPs to work in deprived and under-doctored areas.

The 10-Year Workforce Plan, originally scheduled for last year, is being drawn up to replace the 2023 workforce strategy, which Labour has criticised for proposing large increases in hospital staffing that are now seen as unaffordable.

The draft of the new plan states that the main consideration is not “headcount or inputs, but… a fit for the future care model”. It says the out-of-hospital workforce will grow faster than the acute sector.

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Source: HSJ, 10 June 2026