‘Inhumane’ workload of GPs hitting patient care
THE ‘inhumane’ workload on GPs is now affecting patient care in Scotland, the BMA warned yesterday.
It told Holyrood’s health committee there was a 28.6 per cent GP vacancy rate, with the number of posts still empty after six months up from 42 last year to 80 this year.
Appearing before the committee, Health Secretary Shona Robison denied there was a crisis in general practice.
But Dr Alan McDevitt, chairman of the BMA’s Scottish GPs committee, said: ‘We’ve got very clear evidence now of a recruitment problem into general practice.
‘The fact is many practices, because of that, are having to somewhat restrict the services they provide. In terms of determining what the problems are, we’re now seeing them as very real.
‘They’re actually beginning, I think, to affect patients – and that’s when it becomes a crisis, when patient care begins to be affected by the number of GPs we have.’
Calling for increased investment, he added: ‘I know how hard the public purse is stretched, but this is an absolute requirement.
‘If you want to fix this, if you want to have general practice for your families and mine, this requires investment now.
‘Many colleagues now say the workload is inhumane and they are deciding to get out of it one way or another, whether by going parttime or leaving the profession.
‘In the past five years, 259 GPs under 50 have left and 200 of those were under 40 when they decided to get out.’
Dr Miles Mack, chairman of the Scottish Council of the Royal College of General Practitioners, said the percentage of NHS funding going to general practice had fallen from 9.8 per cent in 2005-06 to 7.4 per cent.
Last week, it forecast Scotland could have a deficit of 830 family doctors by 2020.
Dr Mack said: ‘It does seem that workforce planning has gone awry. We’re not actually investing in the workforce in the place where we should have it.’
He also raised concerns over the ‘bad-mouthing’ of general practice in medical schools, which he said was ‘severely damaging’.
But when pressed by Lib Dem committee member Alex ColeHamilton on whether she accepted there was a crisis in general practice, Miss Robison replied: ‘No, I would characterise it as being very challenging.
‘What I’m focused on is coming up with a range of solutions that get us to a point where people want to go into general practice, stay in general practice and work here in Scotland.
‘That is not easy to resolve because it is partly about the perception of general practice; it is about how our medical schools work; and perhaps also about some of the perception within medical schools of where general practice sits in regards to other specialities. These are deep-rooted and complex issues; there is no one solution to them.’
GP training places have been increased from 300 to 400 a year, with £2million invested in recruitment and retention.
Miss Robison said the Government was looking at ways to boost the number of Scottish-domiciled medical students by increasing the number of undergraduate places by 50 from this year – and by examining linking the payment of graduate fees to a commitment to work in the Scottish NHS.