The doctors were recruited to combat a lack of applicants for GP posts

Irene Redolat and Consuelo Fernandez will work as GPs in the Langbaurgh Primary Care Trust area after undergoing several months of training.

They will shadow practitioners in Loftus and Marske before becoming fully fledged GPs in the new year.

The move is to combat a lack of applicants for GP posts in the region in the past few years.

Stephen Childs, the trust's director of primary and community services, said the recruitments show that the situation is getting better.

We've been through some tricky times in the past recruiting GPs to the area, but it's a lot better today than it's been in the past couple of years Stephen Childs, director of primary and community services at Langbaurgh PCT

He said: "We've been through some tricky times in the past recruiting GPs to the area, but it's a lot better today than it's been in the past couple of years.

"We still have the odd stubborn vacancy, but we had the chance earlier in the year to work with the Department of Health to recruit in Spain."

Mr Childs also gave reassurances the two recruits would be able to provide full GP services.

He said: "Their English is excellent - that's part of the assessment they go through before they are offered a post.

"They have to prove not just that they can speak English, but speak it in such a way that they can diagnose and provide good care.

"They will be providing the full range of family health services that we would expect as patients from our GPs."