Local politicians have launched a new campaign to ‘Save our Surgeries’ in the Scottish Borders.
The campaign is in response to concerns raised about GP practices across Scotland. Within the next few years, experts believe that there will be a shortage of more than 800 GPs across Scotland. Currently, a third of Scottish GP training places go unfilled and as many as 3,000 Scottish trained doctors are now estimated to work abroad.
The Scottish Conservatives’ ‘Save our Surgeries’ campaign calls for primary care to be prioritised in the NHS and for 11 per cent of all NHS spending to go directly to GP Practices.
John Lamont MP and Rachael Hamilton MSP held street stalls in Eyemouth and Duns over the weekend to hear residents’ views about the importance of local GP practices. In July, Cockburnspath surgery closed down because of a shortage of GPs, affecting more than 200 patients.
The news comes after it was revealed that a multi-million pound Scottish Government GP recruitment scheme has attracted only two extra GPs to the Scottish Borders, 2 years after it was launched.
The Scottish Government announced funding of £2.5million for a GP Recruitment and Retention Programme in the summer of 2015. The programme sought to secure more family doctors in rural and deprived areas. The scheme was then re-announced in March, with the promise of a further £5 million worth of investment.
However, in response to a parliamentary question by Shadow Health Secretary Miles Briggs, the Scottish Government has revealed that the project has resulted in only two new doctors coming to the Borders. Across Scotland the programme has led to only 18 new GPs.
Commenting, John Lamont MP said: “In the Borders, like the rest of Scotland, people are having to wait too long to see their GPs and practices are struggling to cope.
“That is why I support calls for primary care to be prioritised by the Scottish Government and for GPs to receive a bigger share of NHS funding.
“Rather than waste millions of pounds on schemes which clearly aren’t having any effect, the Scottish Government needs to work with doctors to attract and retain more GPs in rural areas like the Borders.”