Doctors Group Call For Political Strategy for GPs

Ahead of today's Royal College of General Practitioners Annual Primary Care conference held in Glasgow, Dr Miles Mack, Chair of RCGP Scotland, has called for the Scottish Government to share its strategy for general practice.

The call comes in the wake of new figures showing that funding share for general practice has fallen for the tenth year in a row. 2013/14 saw 7.6% of NHS Scotland funding allocated to general practice. Meanwhile, the number of consultations GP practices provide has risen by 11% in ten years to 24.2 million. 

Speaking from his practice in Dingwall, Dr Miles Mack, Chair of the Royal College of General Practitioners (Scotland), said:

"The profession still does not know what definite actions will be taken. The time to act is now.

The tipping point for general practice is fast approaching. If the Scottish Government want a service to care for the people of Scotland then they must stop prevaricating and employ the shrinking funds available to at least plug the gaps in what is an increasingly threatened primary care service."

Commenting, Scottish Liberal Democrat health spokesperson Jim Hume MSP said:

“The Health Secretary must use her speech to publicly back the Royal College of GP’s strategy for General Practice.

“The experts are warning that Scotland needs an additional 740 GPs by 2020 if it is to tackle the crisis facing GP services.  

“Meanwhile, we continue to learn of cases across the country where a lack of GPs is forcing surgeries to stop accepting new patients and in the worst cases, dissolve entirely."