Island facing GP crisis as two quit after six months

PATIENTS on a Scottish island are the victims of the latest NHS staffing crisis, after two GPs quit after less than six months in the job.

The departure of the family doctors on Mull comes in the same week the Scottish Government offered junior doctors ‘golden hellos’ of £20,000 to train as GPs in hard-to-fill posts.

The island has been trying and failing for two years to hire salaried doctors. Tobermory, one of the island’s three GP surgeries, will now be left with only locums to provide cover.

And one GP who has stepped in to help patients elsewhere on the island is, like a third of Scotland’s family doctors, close to retirement.

Michael Russell, MSP for Argyll and Bute, said last night that the health care situation on Mull has become a ‘complete mess’. He said: ‘The difficulties in healthcare on the island are the result of official bodies not listening to the community. I don’t think golden hellos are the complete answer. It’s about the back-up and support for the GPs, not least from the health boards.’

David Wheater and Heather Royal took on patients in Tobermory at the turn of the year. But locals said they decided life on the island was not for them.

They will stay on until the end of October, when the pair will be replaced by two locums. The reliance on locums has raised concern for the long-term healthcare provision on the island, although health bosses insists there are five full-time doctors in post.

Tobermory surgery did not respond to requests for a comment yesterday.

Argyll and Bute Health and Social Care Partnership said it will advertise the vacant roles as soon as possible.

The latest staffing crisis comes after Health Secretary Shona Robison announced a plan to pay junior doctors £20,000, dubbed a ‘bribe’ by some critics, to train in empty posts.

A spokesman for Argyll and Bute Health and Social Care Partnership said: ‘Our aspiration has always been and will continue to be to offer an island-wide comprehensive primary care service which offers services from all of the primary care team including GPs, nurses and allied health professionals.’

Miss Robison said: ‘We are continuously looking at ways of transforming primary care and GP services.’