Welcome Home

If you were formerly on an NHS Performers List and wish to find out more about returning to general practice in Scotland, this website provides a range of useful information:

• First hand account from a GP who recently returned from Australia to general practice in Edinburgh. Read this story
• Read about life and work as a GP on the Isle of Arran, off Scotland's West Coast.
• Welcome Home frequently asked questions
• Get in touch: gpcareersadvice@nes.scot.nhs.uk

Are you missing Scotland? Are you contemplating returning? Now is a good time – coming back to General Practice in Scotland couldn’t be easier!

Scotland needs its trained GPs back. With the development of a new GMC contract underway, more investment in General Practice, access to the NHS pension scheme and a health service that is arguably one of the best in the world, there is much to commend working as a General Practitioner in Scotland right now. Why not come back to enjoy our four seasons of weather (sometimes in one day), our diversity of culture and proximity to the rest of the world. Scotland is more than ever a wonderful place to live and work.

Depending on your personal circumstances, you may need nothing more than a simple, 2-4 week induction programme, managed by the Health Board whose Performers’ List you choose to join in co-operation with the Scotland Deanery. So no entry assessments, no additional costs when you can least afford it and no lengthy waits to get back into a substantive post.

If you have worked in NHS General Practice before and are currently working in a clinical post comparable to General Practice in the UK (for example in Australia, New Zealand or Canada).

• Your first step is to make contact with the Health Board Performers’ List in the area to which you intend to return. Below is the list (accurate as of 19th August 2019) of whom you should contact.
• Your application will be considered by the Health Board Medical Director who will decide whether it would be appropriate to include you immediately on the Performers’ List provided you complete a short practice-based induction or whether you will be required to successfully complete the Scotland GP Returner Programme.
• The Medical Director will reach this decision as soon as possible in consultation with the NES GP Associate Advisor.

Area contacts for performers list 

This page was last updated on: 10.06.2025 at 10.07