Funding ‘key’ to tackling city’s health inequalities

POLITICIANS and members of the NHS Tayside board have welcomed calls to allocate more health funding to Scotland’s poorest areas.

Dr Miles Mack, chairman of the Royal College of GPs in Scotland, said the extra £500m the Scottish Government has pledged for primary care by the end of the current parliament offered a “major opportunity” to end the problem, which sees areas with the highest rates of health problems receive only slightly more investment that those in the wealthiest postcodes.

Parts of Dundee have been listed as amongst the most deprived in the country.

Whitfield has been amongst the 5% most deprived in Scotland since 2004.

GP practices in Whitfield and Lochee were both taken over by NHS Tayside, which a leading Dundee GP said was linked to being “unable to cope” with need in those areas.

Dundee-based MSP Jenny Marra said: “The Lochee surgery was on the brink of closure last year and we know that other surgeries across the city have vacancies for GPs.

“Dr Mack is right to say that this money should be spent on primary care. It’s only by investing in community care that the long-term health goals of keeping our elderly people healthy and supported at home will be achieved.”

However, Dr Andrew Cowie, chairman of Tayside Local Medical Committee, said that while allocating more funding could help, the shortage of GPs in Scotland was still a problem.

He said: “There is no doubt that deprivation is strongly associated with poor health and that practices such as Lochee and Whitfield were unable to cope with the level of need in their communities with the funding available.

“However, we also need funding for practices with high levels of elderly patients and we are having problems recruiting to more rural practices.

“Ultimately, there isn’t enough funding in the system for the demands it faces, full stop.”

Health secretary Shona Robison said the Government was “determined to tackle health inequalities through primary care services”.

She added: “This Government has protected and increased the NHS Tayside resource budget and over the next five years will deliver investment of over £3.5 billion in the health board.”