Seòmar agus comataidhean

The Scottish Government is fully committed to supporting primary care, including GPs, and ensuring that all communities in Scotland, including remote and rural, receive safe, reliable and sustainable health care services.

Over three years, the Scottish Government is investing £85 million, as part of the Primary Care Fund. As part of this, over £2 million will be invested in work to explore with key stakeholders the issues surrounding GP recruitment and retention which can be particularly challenging in remote and rural areas. This will support a range of initiatives over the next two years including the establishment of a Scottish Rural Medicine Collaborative in seven health boards. This initiative will bring together recruitment strategies and support networks for GPs working in remote and rural areas.

Since 11 February 2016, the Scottish Government has also updated the Directions around the Golden Hello scheme which incentivises GPs to work in rural areas.

In August 2016 Scottish Government advertised 100 new GPST (GP Specialty Training) posts which are additional to current training posts located around Scotland.

Over a third of the 100 new posts have a recruitment bonus to attract trainees into areas that have previously been difficult to recruit to. Five of the new GPST posts have been advertised in the North region for a February 2017 start date - 2 in Caledonian (mainly covering NHS Highland) and 3 in Grampian, all five attract a bursary.

The exact detail of the location (rotations) of the 2 Caledonian posts is still being planned by the North Region Deanery and the Board. The distribution of rotations is determined locally by training capacity in practices and the availability of posts in hospitals and their ability to deliver the GP curricular requirements.

No advice has been received regarding changing the target date.

The Scottish Government has had no such discussions with the UK Government.

The Scottish Government will be engaging with local authorities and other key stakeholders shortly to discuss the methodology that will be used to determine which city will be selected to take forward Scotland’s first low-emission zone by 2018.

As part of the implementation of the Cleaner Air for Scotland strategy, a communications group has been created to support delivery of the strategy and take forward actions such as the commitment to raise public awareness. It will seek to co-ordinate air quality messaging and collaborative opportunities amongst partner organisations. The group will develop a work programme for the future and as an initial action Sniffer, a registered charity supporting work on resilience and sustainability, has been commissioned to deliver a scoping study to improve understanding of general levels of awareness of air pollution and health impacts, and a roadmap showing how and when to engage stakeholders to increase this awareness. This study will be supported by audience testing of the communications and engagement requirements for successful delivery of the National Modelling Framework and National Low Emissions Framework.

The implementation of low-emission zones will be taken forward as set out in the Programme for Government. The Scottish Government will be engaging with local authorities and other key stakeholders to enable Scotland’s first low-emission zone to be put in place by 2018.

The 100 GPST (GP Specialty Training) posts are additional to current training posts located around Scotland, substantially increasing the overall number of GPST posts that will be advertised in subsequent years. Funding of GPST posts (e.g. salaries, Trainers’ grants etc.) is shared between NHS Education for Scotland and the health boards where they are placed, and such costs are met from the funding allocations for each board.

The Scottish Government has committed to fund all new GPST posts that fill from February 2017, including those that are eligible for the £20,000 bursary. The exact spend will only be known once the recruitment round, being managed by NHS Education for Scotland (NES), is complete.

Five of the new GPST posts have been advertised in The North region for a February 2017 start date - three in Grampian and two in Caledonian (mainly covering NHS Highland) and all five attract a bursary.

In parallel with establishing these new GPST posts, NES will work with Scotland’s health boards to review the current four year GPST posts to make them more attractive.

The end date of this recruitment initiative is when trainees take up their new posts, i.e. the project end will depend on the recruitment fill rate.

Our legislative programme for 2016-17, set out in our programme for government, includes a bill to complete the devolution of forestry and to facilitate the establishment of a forestry and land management body. We have not consulted with local authorities on this proposal; however our consultation on the Future of Forestry (https://consult.scotland.gov.uk/forestry/future-of-forestry) proposes that this agency would have an initial focus on the management of the National Forest Estate and seeks views on how its remit might be extended in future to maximise the benefits of publicly owned land. We welcome views from all those with an interest in the remit, whether individuals or organisations, including local authorities.

Scottish Ministers have invested £2.5 million over three years in a GP Recruitment and Retention Fund. The aim of the fund is to support the recruitment, retention and return of GPs in NHS Scotland.

One of the bids, a Scottish Rural Medical Collaborative, is made up of rural health boards from across Scotland: NHS Highland, NHS Grampian, NHS Shetland, NHS Western Isles, NHS Orkney, NHS Dumfries and Galloway and NHS Ayrshire and Arran. These boards have joined together as they share common issues that affect recruitment and retention of GPs in rural areas. As part of their bid they have identified the importance of Career Events in rural schools. The collaborative will promote a national programme to provide resources and to link with educational institutions and local authorities. This will help school pupils decide if they wish to apply to medicine (or another healthcare profession). The collaborative will provide appropriate support in terms on mentoring, work observation and advice for people with rural links in making an application. For initiatives to be successful work will need to be done in partnership with the local authorities, Scottish School of Rural Health and Wellbeing and the academic institutions.

We have also made widening access to medicine a key priority as part of our strategic approach towards achieving a more sustainable medical workforce. Officials are developing proposals for a pre-medical entry programme to assist secondary school students prepare for the requirements of a medical degree, and are in discussion with Scotland’s medical schools on how best to deliver a sustainable programme. A key element will be insight into the requirements and opportunities of community-based practice.