More GP's Needed

The Government are spending millions on recruiting GPs. 

Scottish Health Minister Shona Robison pledged that some of the £60 Million NHS budget would be spent on several new reforms to attract young doctors to general practice.  

This is including an increase in training places by 1/3, aiding with their work load by attaching pharmasists to practices and making changes to current contracts. It is hoped this will aid in recuriting and retaining doctors in General Practice. 

This has been welcomed by MSP Ms Annabelle Ewing, she said

"I know that there are communities in Fife where there are real problems with a lack of GP s so I am delighted that the Scottish Government are taking concrete steps to increase the number of doctors entering general practice. In June we provided an additional £60 million for transforming primary care – £20million of that enabling GPs to trial new ways of working.  There has also been £16million to recruit 140 pharmacists who can work directly with GPs.

But the bottom line is that we need to recruit and retain more GPs and so I am delighted by the announcement this week of two important initiatives to help achieve those ambitions. In the last five years more than 250 people under the age of 50 have stopped being a GP. Often that will be for personal reasons – for example if they become parents, or carers themselves.

Many of those GPs will become able to return to practice after a few years. So the Scottish Government is investing in a programme to increase the effectiveness of our existing GP returners’ scheme. That is the quickest and most cost–effective way of increasing GP numbers, and it is beneficial for general practices and for patients.

The second initiative relates to initial training and recruitment. Right now there are 300 specialist GP training posts available each year. That figure is now to be increased to 400 so that, next year, there will be one third more GPs in training than there are now."

However campaigner Dr Andy MacIntosh from group GP Survive tells us throwing money at the recruitment crisis in the NHS is like a sticking plaster approach rather than addressing the underlying issues which include many doctors reaching retirement age.