Docs recruitment scheme comes up short
A GOVERNMENT initiative to hire more GPs has attracted just 18 new doctors in two years.
The GP Recruitment and Retention Programme, unveiled in 2015, hasn’t delivered a single GP in certain parts of the country.
The information was published following a parliamentary question by the Conservatives’ shadow health secretary Miles Briggs. The scheme had initial funding of £2.5million, with the aim of securing more family doctors in rural and deprived areas. In March, a further £5million worth of investment was pledged.
But Health Secretary Shona Robison has confirmed it has led to just five new GPs for Glasgow, seven for Tayside, and a handful in other areas.
Briggs said: “It’s no wonder Scotland is in the grip of a general practice crisis when the SNP Government fails so miserably to attract doctors to the job. At this rate, it would take this scheme almost a century to address the shortage of 856 GPs we’re expected to have.”
Robison said: “We have increased investment in GP services annually since 2007, investing £71.6million this year in direct support of general practice, including increased funding for GP recruitment and retention.
“The Recruitment and Retention Programme has successfully delivered more GPs and builds on a wide range of initiatives that encourage GPs to enter and remain in the profession.”