Doctorwarns crisis-hitGP surgerieswillshut

A Blairgowrie doctor has warned that more Big County surgeries will give up their contracts in the following months.

Dr Andrew Buist, senior partner at Ardblair Medical Practice in Blairgowrie has said that general practice is experiencing a crisis very like“a car crash in slow motion,”left to become ever more acute by a succession of Scottish governments which have failed to recruit staff.

Dr Buist is the new chairman of the British Medical Association’s GP committee in Scotland.

Although he saw hope for the future in the extra cash promised for primary care and the new GP contract, he warned that more practices will go under in the years it will take to resolve the GP shortage.

He said:“I think it’s very likely there will be more practices giving up their contract, certainly in Scotland and possibly in Tayside, in the next few months.

“Despite the fact we know there is a crisis we have been unable so far to turn the corner. The new contract is six months old, it’s going to take some time to get purchase because we need to get these services in place and that depends on a new workforce, which as you know, is not queuing up at the labour exchange to take these jobs.”

Dr Buist said the problems in general practice had“not happened overnight.”The senior partner at Ardblair surgery explained successive governments had sat by through years of underfunding.