Why third of GPs want to retire in the next 5 years
SCOTLAND’S family doctors will see their numbers slashed by a third by 2020, as a generation of GPs retire.
Surgeries are on the ‘brink of crisis’ in the face of a worsening recruitment battle, doctors claim.
In the next five years, almost 1,600 of Scotland’s 4,918 family GPs plan to retire, a British Medical Association survey indicates.
One in seven doctors – who earn an average £85,200 salary – will cut their hours and go part-time, complaining their work stress levels are soaring.
But the numbers to replace them are not there, with many trainee doctors drawn to more attractive careers as hospital specialists and surgeons.
Last year, only 373 people applied for 305 trainee posts – in a profession where around 40 per cent make it through the initial selection process, according to official NHS figures.
It means Scotland faces a demographic time bomb, with potentially fewer than half the new GPs it needs to replace those leaving.
It is feared the crisis will lead to l onger delays for patients, who already wait up to three weeks to see their doctor. It could also mean shorter appointment times, which have been slashed to five minutes in some practices in Fife.
The Scottish Government has been accused by the Conservatives of ‘complete denial’ over the latest scandal soon to hit Scotland’s NHS.
Dr Andrew Buist, deputy chairman of the British Medical Association (BMA) Scottish GP committee, said: ‘General practice appears to be on the brink of a workforce crisis.
‘The prospect of the relentless and rising workload, along with the frustrations of bureaucracy, is driving doctors out of the profession and putting young doctors off entering general practice.
‘General practice is already woefully short-staffed and unless urgent action is taken to improve recruitment and retention of GPs, patient care will be compromised and the Scottish Government’s flagship integration reforms will likely fail.’
The SNP has promised to integrate health and social care by next year to help keep elderly people in their own homes for longer.
But the latest figures suggest there may not be enough family doctors to make this work. One in five surgeries have at least one GP vacancy and are forced to hire expensive and hard-tosource locums to bridge the gap.
Scottish Health Secretary Shona Robison said early retirement was an individual choice and many GPs came back to do locum work. She added: ‘The BMA survey shows the number of GPs thinking about retiring in the next five years compares favourably with the rest of the UK. There are now more GPs per head of population in Scotland than England.’