Restrictions on GPs transferring from England to Wales should be lifted to help fill vacancies, according to a health official.

Doctors are waiting at least eight weeks to be admitted to the country’s “performers’ list” for GPs – and this is deterring locums, according to the North Wales Community Health Council.

The council says there is a “large pool” of doctors in the north-west of England who would be willing to work in Wales.

But they are discouraged by the Welsh registration process, it says.

The Welsh government says it has sought unsuccessfully to get a joint list with England – but the Department of Health in Westminster has failed to proceed with the plans.

It says it is now trying to simplify the process for joining the list.

The council’s chief officer Geoff Ryall-Harvey told the Daily Post: “You could be a Welsh doctor, trained in Wales but working in England and you can’t work in Wales unless you wait three months to be put on the list.

“If you’re on the Performance List but don’t work in Wales for a year you have to re-apply – and the Welsh Government can’t tell us why those not on the list would be dangerous.”

He added: “It is widely known that Wales is facing a GP recruitment crisis. A GP living in Chester, might be choosing between locum posts in Blacon in England and Saltney – both of which are about 2,000 yards from the centre of Chester.

“Such a GP is likely to choose the Blacon job rather than go through a further bureaucratic form-filling exercise.”