GP CARE FEARS IN HOUSING UPSURGE Pressure on NHS to recruit staff
A primary care manager has warned more GP practices could close if further major housing developments are approved by Perth and Kinross Council.
Jim Devine says there is growing concern among local health professionals about the NHS’s current inability to recruit staff at a time when several major developments are being progressed across the region.
Construction work is already well underway at Bertha Park, a former auction mart site west of Perth, and Lathro Farm in Kinross.
Work is also scheduled to start on another site north of Scone very soon.
And officials are currently considering granting further approval for two more major schemes – one west of Ruthvenfield and one south of Stanley.
But Mr Devine fears any further rises in the number of people attempting to register at practices as patients at the same time as vacant positions are not being filled could lead to staff at some practices deciding to pack it in.
He expressed his views in an email released to the PA under Freedom of Information
legislation after we asked PKC if NHS Tayside had made any comment about a particular planning application.
Mr Devine told PKC planning official Callum Petrie on January 14 this year: “From a health and social care perspective there is concern at the recent housing developments [approved] across Perth and Kinross, much of which has been centred in Perth city and the immediate surrounding areas.
“Our main concern is that the NHS as a whole is experiencing recruitment difficulties across its staff, particularly in GPs.
“The consequence of this has led to many practices returning their contract to the respective health organisations, Bridge of Earn being a case in point.
“Several opportunities are now being implemented by the NHS in Scotland, and Perth and Kinross in particular, to fill the clinical void with different models of service and staff.
“However, these are in their infancy and will take time to embed themselves into standard practice.
“In the short term there is concern that our primary care teams will have difficulty in continuing the provision of health services across Perth and Kinross and that other practices may be caught in the trap that the practice in Bridge of Earn [was].
“I accept that housing has a significant impact on the health and wellbeing of our communities and appreciate the direction of the Perth and Kinross local development plan.
“We have a bit of catching up to do and appreciate that you are now sending notification of planning applications submitted so that we [can] discuss these with our wider primary care teams.”
The PA asked PKC if it wished to respond to anything Mr Devine had said but had not received a response by our print deadline yesterday.