The supernurse will see you now (as the doctor’s far too busy)

AN army of ‘supernurses’ will be trained to take on the work of GPs in a desperate bid to avert a crisis in Scotland’s NHS.

Under-pressure family doctors are struggling to find the time to see patients, as demand for appointments outstrips supply.

And with a third of GPs set to retire in the next five years, according to one British Medical Association survey, the situation is set to get even worse.

The Scottish Government is now making plans for nurses to plug the gap, with a series of training contracts put out to tender by NHS Education for Scotland.

They include training for assessment of joint pain, asthma, cardiovascular disease, diabetes, heart failure, mental health, sexual health and cervical screening.

But the plan means it will become increasingly less likely that patients will see a GP, while there are concerns about the pressure on nurses, who are already stretched to the limit.

The Royal College of Nursing (RCN) said last week that more than one in 20 nursing and midwifery posts in NHS Scotland is vacant – the highest-ever level.

Dr Jean Turner, former chief executive of the Scotland Patients’ Association, said: ‘I’m not a great believer –- and neither are my exmedical friends or patients I’ve spoken to – in having a nurse, who is not a specialist, not a doctor, working in isolation.

‘There are dangers for the professional but, most importantly, for the patient if something is missed.

‘Nurses are highly competent people but they are trained in a different way to doctors.

‘I’m not against more specialist nurses, I just hope politicians don’t think that if they get more specialist nurses, they can do the job of a GP as well.’

Scottish Tory health spokesman Miles Briggs said: ‘The SNP hasn’t trained enough nurses to fill nursing posts, let alone expanding the role to other disciplines. That said, GPs need all the help they can get and bringing in more nurses to assist in certain roles could be one way of doing that.’

Across Scotland, nine out of ten GP surgeries have been forced to seek locum cover in the past 12 months, while a quarter of practices have vacancies for GPs.

A total of 533 family doctors have taken early retirement since 2007.

Ellen Hudson, of RCN Scotland, said: ‘We welcome this investment in training for nursing teams within general practice as part of the wider approach to developing integrated, multi-professional primary care teams.’

Dr Alan McDevitt, chairman of the BMA’s Scottish GP Committee, said: ‘The new GP contract in Scotland enables some of the services currently performed by GPs, such as vaccinations, to be done by other healthcare professionals in expanded multi-disciplinary teams, freeing up GP time.

‘This will give doctors more time with patients, particularly benefiting those with more complex medical conditions.’

A spokesman for the Scottish Government said: ‘This contract is to support GPs, not replace GPs.

‘GP nurses are accomplished health professionals that are a well-established part of the GP team and, as the role of the GP develops to focus on more complex care, the team who work alongside GPs will need to be better trained.

‘The new proposed GP contract, backed by investment of £110 million in 2018-19 and jointly developed with the BMA, will ensure GPs can spend more time with the patients who need them most and that patients can access the right person at the right time.

‘Our ambition is to increase the number of GPs by at least 800 over ten years to ensure a sustainable service that meets increasing demand.’

‘There are dangers for the patient’