89% of GPs say they worry that lack of resources is putting patient care at risk and 58% plan to leave or reduce their hours within five years

A large majority of GPs are seeing a direct correlation between the reduced resources available for general practice services and their worry over the safety of their patients. Startling figures from a ComRes poll, commissioned by the Royal College of General Practitioners (Scotland), reveal that nine in ten (89%) GPs worry a lack of resources is putting patient care at risk.

Almost a tenth (9%) of Scotland’s GPs are planning to leave general practice in the next year and a staggering 58% of respondents say they are planning to either leave or reduce their hours in the next five years. For GPs in Scotland, 77% worry about missing something serious with a patient because of their workload. This is an unacceptable way to carry on within their profession.

93% of GPs also believe that, without more resources, waiting times for appointments will increase, despite frequent reports of patients waiting for three weeks already.

As well as the very real patient safety implications of the intense resource and workforce pressures facing general practice in Scotland, the new poll’s findings could help explain low morale suffered by the profession, with 93% saying morale has decreased over the last five years.

Such is the scale of the crisis in the GP service that 79% of GPs in Scotland worry that general practice will be unrecognisable as we know it by the time of the 2021 Scottish parliamentary election.

Reacting to the findings from his practice in Dingwall, Dr Miles Mack, Chair of RCGP Scotland, 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 2005/06 to 7.4% in 2014/15, despite an 11% increase in the number of 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.

“General practice in Scotland is a defining issue in this Scottish Parliamentary 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.

“RCGP Scotland has been warning of this snowballing state of affairs for two and a half years now and has put forward positive solutions to see the crisis resolved. A blueprint for Scottish general practice, put forward by the College, suggested workable steps to recruit an extra 740 GPs for Scotland by 2020. Our manifesto, Promoting general practice has presented more. Those recommendations must be enacted and funded as a matter of considerable urgency. NHS Scotland’s Information Services Division showed how Scotland had only received an extra 35 Whole Time Equivalent GPs between 2009 and 2013. That is nowhere near enough.

“77% of GPs are saying that they worry about missing something serious with patients because of their workload. The prime cause of that workload is an insufficient number of GPs. We are pleased to see the widening of the broader primary care team, as also called for in the Blueprint, but GPs do a job that no one else is able to do and sufficient numbers of GPs must be at the heart of any such team.

“Being a GP is the most challenging, interesting and rewarding of jobs and it is a necessity to ensure it is allowed to flourish. NHS England has just announced a raft of measures aimed at saving general practice in England. They have said they are no longer ‘in denial’ at the state of the service, though that service already had a full percent more share of funding than Scotland’s general practice receives. Funding there for general practice will rise to ‘over 10%’ of NHS England spending. The College has consistently laid out why the profession needs 11% in Scotland. We need to hear urgently that political parties in Scotland will see replicated what has happened south of the border.”

Further Information

RCGP Scotland Press Enquiries to: David Webster, Communications and Public Affairs Co-ordinator, RCGP Scotland, 020 3188 7739 or 07808 795 494

Notes to editor

RCGP Scotland represents a network of around 5,000 family doctors in Scotland aiming to improve care for patients. We work to encourage and maintain the highest standards of general medical practice and act as the voice of GPs on resources, education, training, research and clinical standards.

RCGP Scotland’s Promoting general practice: A manifesto for the 2016 Scottish Parliamentary election may be found here.

The RCGP Scotland campaign video is accessible here.

RCGP Scotland’s July 2015 campaigning document, A blueprint for Scottish general practice may be found here.

Further information on the RCGP Put patients first: Back general practice campaign, which calls for an 11% share of NHS spend to adequately resource general practice, may be found here.

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89% of GPs say they worry that lack of resources is putting patient care at risk and 58% plan to leave or reduce their hours within five years