GP vacancy rates are ‘extremely troubling’

The level of vacancies in GP practices in Scotland is “extremely troubling”, a doctors’ organisation has warned.

The British Medical Association (BMA) Scotland said a recent survey, where 26.46 per cent of GP practices responding reported a vacancy, indicated “recruitment and retention problems” were not improving.

More than half of Scotland’s 960 GP practices took part and, of the 171 vacancies reported, 72.9 per cent had been vacant for six months or longer.

BMA Scotland’s GP committee chairman Dr Alan Mcdevitt said: “The fact that more than one in four GP practices in Scotland had a vacant position in this snapshot survey is extremely troubling. It indicates that the recruitment and retention problems in general practice are not improving.”