Current status: Answered by Shona Robison on 13 October 2016
To ask the Scottish Government what action it is taking to tackle reported GP shortages in NHS Forth Valley.
Under this Government, the number of GPs employed in Scotland has risen by 7.4 per cent to nearly 5,000 – the highest ever on record. Investment in GP services has gone up every year under this Government and we are committed to an increasing share of the NHS budget going to Primary Care in each year of this parliament.
We recognise recruitment into General Practice is an on-going challenge. We are supporting health boards to encourage GP recruitment and retention with a number of short and long term investments. We are investing £85 million over three years to develop Primary Care workforce and infrastructure. Additionally, in March we announced a further £20 million investment to ease workforce pressures over the next year.
We are testing community hub models in NHS Forth Valley and NHS Fife. By offering community hub fellowships in Fife and Forth Valley we have been able to attract young, recently qualified GPs to areas to which it has previously been difficult to recruit through the offer of portfolio careers and extended roles in the hubs.