GP surgery blames government for staffing ‘crisis’ in website letter
A GP surgery has published an open letter blaming the Scottish Government and health officials for the “crisis” facing its patients.
Parkgrove and East Craigs Medical Practice, in Clermiston, Edinburgh, serves 10,700 patients, but says it is failing to recruit sufficient staff.
The letter, published on the surgery’s website, tells patients that despite numerous attempts to recruit doctors it is failing to fill positions thanks to “negative publicity from the Government about the role of GPs”.
According to the the letter – penned by partners of the practice – such publicity means that general practice medicine is no longer attractive to junior doctors, while senior staff are taking early retirement.
It also tells patients they should “fear for the future” of NHS GP services and urges them to contact their local MSP and the chief of NHS Lothian by providing their email addresses.
The letter – originally posted two months ago – says despite Edinburgh being an “attractive place to work” the surgery is struggling to recruit because of “negative publicity from the Government about the role of GPs and also their perceived impact on hospital waiting times”.
It goes on: “Underpinning this there has been a real underinvestment in primary care services in Lothian.
“Despite this being brought to the attention of the relevant bodies, e.g. health boards and Scottish Government, no action has been forthcoming. The end result is that general practice is now no longer an attractive postgraduate career.”
The letter also provides the personal email addresses of Tim Davison, the chief executive of NHS Lothian, and Alex Cole-Hamilton, Liberal Democrat MSP.
Speaking about the crisis, Mr Cole-Hamilton said GPs are working “valiantly to keep up with demand”, but the dearth of new GPs meant the situation was “unsustainable”.
Minister for Public Health Aileen Campbell said Scotland has the highest number of GPs per head of the population of the four UK countries.
“Last year we confirmed an extra 100 GP training places and we are increasing our support for scheme that bring experienced GPs back into the health service,” she said.
“We have also allocated £20 million over the next year to ease some of the immediate challenges facing the workforce and are also working closely with the BMA and the Royal College of GPs to reduce workload and work towards a new Scottish GP contract from 2017.”