27th May 2016
According to a recent poll by the RCGP, around 9/10 Scottish doctors fear a lack of resources is undermining patient care, with 9% of the workforce potentially quitting in the next year. The findings, which have been released ahead of May’s Scottish parliament elections, are telling of the crisis faced by the country’s GPs. 58% of the polls 150 respondents said they planned to resign or reduce their working hours in the next five years, while 9% plan to quite over the next year. A total of 77% of GPs said that they worried about missing something series with a patient because of the soaring pressure on workload. The majority of respondents cited lack of resources as potentially undermining patient care. Profession morale is at a low.
Scottish chair of the RCGP Dr Miles Mack said: “GPs are already deeply concerned about the welfare of their patients as a result of a decade of cuts to the percentage share of funding the service receives, from 9.8% in 2005/6 to 7.4% in 2014/15, despite an 11% increase in consultations over ten years. A wholesale departure of GPs now looks likely given the current conditions the profession faces. In that instance, patient safety clearly will suffer further.”
Political parties have laid out plans to boost funding on the run-up to the elections. The Scottish Conservatives released a manifesto pledging to increase the share of overall NHS funding spent on general practice, while the Scottish National Party government unveiled a £20m GP funding package in March.
Dr Mack commented that “general practice in Scotland is a defining issue in [this] election. This is a service absolutely central to the NHS and to Scottish life. Patient safety is the concern of all political parties and of the entire electorate. I call on all the parties to make commitments which will guarantee the future of the GP service and increase funding to a sustainable level.”
In England, plans set out under the GP Forward View, published this month by NHS England, pledge to lift the share of NHS funding spent on general practice to over 10% by 2020/2021.