New medicine course encouraging GPs to stay in Portsmouth
The city has the highest number of patients per doctor in the country
A new medical degree at the University of Portsmouth is hoping to encourage GPs to stay in the city.
54 students are being taught on the course, which is run in collaboration with King's College London.
There is hope the course will help ease pressures facing GPs in Portsmouth - which has the highest number of patients, 2500, per doctor in the country.
Professor Russell Hearn told Greatest Hits Radio that some doctors could be ready to work in the NHS in as soon as four years time.
"We know many of them are local, we've got some people who live in Portsmouth, Liphook, and the surrounding area, and we hope to see them join the hospital contingent."
"When you try doctors locally, they tend to then stay locally, and work in the local area, and Portsmouth has a particularly high need for doctors."
He added that issues with recruitment is adding to the pressure facing local GPs.
"Those GPs are working extra hard and it would be great to give an injection of new talent and new spirit into the area."