London: Britain's National Health Service is to offer cash incentives to Australian GPs in an attempt to fill an alarming shortage of family doctors across the country.

NHS England has said it will offer £18,500 ($34,000) to British GPs who have relocated and Australian-trained doctors who want to live and work in the UK.

Details of the recruitment plans were outlined at the Royal College of GPs' annual conference in Glasgow on Thursday, with a target of 2000 foreign doctors hoped to be in place by 2020/21.

The NHS is aiming to have 2000 foreign doctors in place by 2020/21. Credit:Fairfax Media

The initiative mirrors the success of the London Ambulance Service recruiting more than 500 paramedics from Australia and New Zealand in the past four years.