Recruiting more GPs without investment ‘a distant prospect’ – doctors’ union

The Scottish Government’s target of recruiting 800 more GPs by 2027 will “remain at best a distant prospect” without direct investment in practices, BMA Scotland has said.

On Tuesday, the NHS published its annual GP workforce statistics, showing a decrease of 40 total doctors between 2022 and 2023, from 4,514 to 4,474.

The number of whole-time equivalent general practitioners also fell by 0.4%, from 3,493.9 3,478.4.

In 2017, the Scottish Government pledged to increase the number of doctors in local practices by 800 within a decade.

On Tuesday, Health Secretary Michael Matheson said the Government remained fully committed to the goal, which he called “broadly correct”, adding that numbers had increased by 271 in the past six years.

The BMA (British Medical Association) is the doctors’ union and professional body.

Dr Andrew Buist, the chair of the BMA’s Scottish GP committee, said the figures should be a “massive wake up call” to the Scottish Government”, adding: “They are more evidence that not only are we not on track to meet the Scottish Government’s commitment for 800 GPs, when trainees and registrars are excluded, we are actually going backwards.”

Dr Buist said: “At our recent conference, the Cabinet Secretary made positive noises about prioritising primary care, but that needs to be backed up now by urgent action – including crucially increased direct investment into practices to allow them to focus on meeting the needs of local communities and recruiting the staff they need.

“Without that, I cannot see these figures getting any better and the idea of recruiting extra GPs anywhere near the 800 target will remain, at best, a distant prospect and, more realistically, completely out of reach, pushing us more and more towards a two-tier system where those who can afford to, simply go private.

“That threatens the very principles we built our NHS on, so there can be no more important issue, and no more delay to the urgent work to support GPs we know is needed.”

Responding to the figures, the Health Secretary said: “While it is welcome that the headcount of GPs is now sitting consistently at over 5,000, there is clearly more to do with our partners.

“Training new GPs is key to our approach and this takes time. There are, currently, just over 1,200 trainee GPs in Scotland and we have expanded GP specialty training, adding 35 places this academic year and a further 35 places next year.

“We also invest over £1 million per annum in a range of recruitment and retention initiatives so that becoming a GP remains an attractive career choice.

“While growing Scotland’s GP workforce requires continued and concerted effort, it is important to recognise that we have a higher number of GPs per head of population than the rest of the UK.

“Further plans will be set out in the New Year relating to how we strive to continue growing our GP workforce and support hard-working GPs to stay in practice.”