Medics choosing to train as GPs in Cumbria are being offered bursaries worth £20,000 to address a shortfall of community doctors.

West Cumbria currently has 13 full-time GP vacancies.

It has been included in an NHS England pilot scheme to boost the 109 places in the country where GP recruitment is most difficult.

They include the West Lakes area, as well as other areas of the county.

GP trainees on the scheme will also be given the option to complete an additional year of training with North Cumbria University Hospitals Trust where they will be trained full time in a hospital special interest, paid on a salaried GP scale.

It is hoped trained GPs will then continue to work within the area supporting both primary care and the acute hospital.

Special interests available include emergency medicine, acute medicine, general surgery, obstetrics and gynaecology, paediatrics and ophthalmology.

As of September 2015, Cumbria had 23 vacancies which represents around eight per cent of the GP workforce in the county.

Some vacancies have been empty for more than two years and some had been advertised as many as eight times.

Dr David Rogers, medical director of NHS Cumbria Clinical Commissioning Group, said: "We hope this will encourage more medics at the start of their careers to choose Cumbria as a place to live and train.

"GPs who live and work here know it is a great place to work and this scheme will encourage GP trainees to discover this for themselves.

"We know that if people train in an area they are more likely to choose to stay and work there.”