Swinney says he is ‘focused on delivery’ as GP plans come under fire at Holyrood

John Swinney has insisted he is “absolutely focused” on delivering for Scots on the issues that concern them – despite claims from Tory rivals that his Government’s plans are a “pathetic con”.

Scottish Conservative leader Russell Findlay attacked the First Minister after he promised his plans for next year would see 100,000 more appointments at GPs.

The commitment was one of the headlines in Mr Swinney’s Programme for Government statement for the coming 12 months, which was unveiled to Holyrood earlier this week.

But Mr Findlay demanded: “Why should anyone believe John Swinney will keep his latest promise when the SNP break them all the time?”

Attacking the SNP leader, the Conservative leader said official data from Public Health Scotland had shown that there were 500,000 fewer GP appointments carried out over the past year when compared with the year before Mr Swinney became First Minister.

Mr Findlay went on to say medics in BMA Scotland had pointed out the increase was the “equivalent to just one extra day of appointments, an increase of less than 1%”.

The Tory branded the Programme for Government “a pathetic con” as he told MSPs the Royal College of General Practitioners of Scotland “say they simply don’t have the workforce capacity to deliver the 100,000 extra appointments”.

Raising the issue at First Minister’s Questions, he told the SNP leader: “The way to increase the appointments is to increase the number of GPs.

“The SNP promised 800 more but that hasn’t happened. They constantly make big pledges about the NHS but always fail patients, the SNP never keep their word.”

Mr Swinney however insisted that the number of GPs has increased, saying the total had risen from 4,904 GPs in 2017 to 5,211 in the latest statistics.

He told MSPs that his Programme for Government “set out the steps that we are taking to expand capacity within the health service to meet the demand for appointments with GPs”.

He added this would include 100,000 additional appointments “that will be available through GPs to look at particular high risk factors such as high blood pressure, high cholesterol, obesity, and smoking”.

But he also said the Scottish Government would be expanding the Pharmacy First scheme, which allows people to get medical help from pharmacists, and increasing the availability of other health professionals, such as physiotherapists, in the “frontline health care service”.

The First Minister argued that “the combination of these factors will make an impact on the access to GP services in Scotland”.

He also told MSPs that a commitment to deliver 64,000 extra surgeries and appointments by the end of March 2025 had been exceeded by his Government.

Mr Swinney said: “We delivered 105,500 extra appointments and procedures over that timescale, and we will deliver more in the forthcoming parliamentary year.

“There will be more delivery by this Government in the course of the next 12 months.”