IT is not quite mission impossible, but recruiting GPs has become notoriously difficult.

Earlier this year a survey of 463 practices by the British Medical Association Scotland found 17 per cent had at least one empty post. Finding junior doctors to train as GPs is also growing more difficult, with one- fifth of training jobs unfilled by national recruitment this summer, and the problem is exacerbated in rural practices, where aside from a growing caseload and increasing bureaucracy, there are associated problems with arduous on-call hours and travel times for home visits.

The initiative of the staff at Arran Medical Group is to be praised, therefore. They have posted on an online recruitment advertisement where they have remade the celebrated opening credits of the 1980s television hit, The A-Team, with staff members taking on the starring roles. We note that the GP registrar playing John "Hannibal" Smith - catchphrase "I love it when a plan comes together" - sensibly brandishes a pen rather than a cigar. This is the National Health Service, after all.

The tagline for the series famously contained the phrase "if you can find them, maybe you can hire the A-Team". It is to be hoped the Arran recruiters can locate someone who suits them down to a Mr T.