Pioneering surgeon Sir Magdi Yacoub, the man who made Harefield Hospital the most famous heart transplant centre in the world, has been head-hunted by Prime Minister Tony Blair as an NHS ambassador.
Sir Magdi will be asked to scour the world for 450 foreign consultants to fill empty hospital posts.
He will act as the Government's Special Envoy for the health service, and will tour the globe searching for NHS Fellows as far afield as Canada and New Zealand.
The International Fellowship Scheme for the NHS wants to attract hundreds of extra heart and lung surgeons, psychiatrists and radiologists as soon as possible.
The NHS Fellows will be given the opportunity to live and work in England for up to two years and to take part in clinical research and teaching.
The Department of Health said the doctors would be paid on the consultants' salary scale, which ranges from £52,640 to £68,505, depending on experience.
Mr Blair said: "I am particularly pleased that one of his first tasks will be to promote the International Fellowship Scheme. We are committed to recruit more doctors into the NHS as quickly as possible."
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