‘Creaking’ NHS hit by GP exodus
Worrying snapshot of crisis as practice loses 4th doctor
SCOTLAND is suffering an exodus of GPs forced to quit because of burnout from the ‘creaking’ NHS.
Doctors are leaving practices to work abroad as they no longer consider Scotland a place to build their careers.
Many more are retiring as poor work-life balance, soaring demand and pension tax penalties for working too many hours make staying on unattractive.
One surgery admitted it had lost its fourth GP to emigration or early retirement after ‘political promises of help for the NHS have failed to materialise’.
Doctors at Kemnay Medical Group in Aberdeenshire say the increased demand is ‘completely outstripping capacity in the health service’.
Last night, the British Medical Association said it was hearing of increasing numbers of doctors considering cutting their hours or quitting altogether ‘due to exhaustion and burnout’.
Dr Andrew Buist, chairman of the BMA’s Scottish GP Committee, said: ‘The Scottish Government has pledged to deliver 800 more GPs by 2027 and we desperately need an update on these figures to see if we are on track to achieve this.’ But Dr David Shackles, joint chairman of the Royal College of GPs in Scotland warned: ‘This increase isn’t likely to plug the gap of GPs working in Scotland if GPs continue to leave the profession.
‘We were disappointed to see a lack of commitment around retention in the Scottish Government’s latest workforce strategy.’
Kemnay Medical Group’s latest contribution to the Kemnay community newsletter describes how demand for appointments is up 50 per cent in the past three years.
Following the departure to New Zealand of one of its GPs, Dr Andrew Rigby, it said: ‘Sadly, working as a full-time GP in a creaking system where the pressures on clinicians have continued to grow, the demand for our time has rocketed and political promises of help have failed to materialise, Dr Rigby felt there was no future for him in Scotland or the NHS.
‘Sadly Dr Rigby is the fourth doctor Kemnay has lost either to emigration or early retirement.’
West Aberdeenshire and Kincardine MP Andrew Bowie called the statement ‘a damning indictment of Scotland’s NHS under the SNP’.
A Scottish Government spokesman said: ‘We are working to bolster numbers to help deal with the workload and have already delivered a record number of GPs working in Scotland, with more per head than any other country in the UK.’
‘Demand for our time has rocketed’