This story was first published in digitalhealth.net
GP funding cut by £1.6bn over last 10 years in Scotland, RCGP claims
Funding for general practice in Scotland has faced cuts of £1.6 billion over the lat 10 years, according to the Royal College of General Practitioners (RCGP) Scotland.
Analysis from RCGP Scotland found that GP funding accounted for 9.7 per cent of the NHS Scotland budget in 2005/6, which has dropped by 7.3 per cent by 2015/16. The RCGP Scotland claims that this reduction is the equivalent of 4.5 million patient consultations each year and warns that these cuts have led to a recruitment crisis and longer waiting times for patients.
The RCGP Scotland has called on the Scottish government to increase GP funding by 0.5 per cent from April 2016 as the first step to reversing the problems caused from the funding cuts.
Dr Miles Mack, chair of RCGP Scotland and a GP in Dingwall, said: "£1.6 billion has been cut from the budget of general practice that should have been invested in GPs, staff and infrastructure. Instead we have a recruitment crisis and patients waiting three weeks for an appointment with their family doctor.
“Finance Secretary John Swinney said in the Scottish Parliament on 10 February that he will reconsider funding for general practice in the light of the recent public outcry. We urge him to make the right choice. He can give general practice the kudos and the strength it deserves, make it better for patients and make it a place young doctors increasingly want to be."
However, Health Secretary Shona Robison has questioned the RCGP Scotland’s budget analysis. She said: “These claims do not reflect the reality – which is that funding for GPs has actually increased each year under this government, rising from £704.61 million in 2007-08 to £852.57 million in 2014-15 – at the same time as we have increased the overall NHS budget in Scotland to £13 billion a year.
“Scotland has the highest number of GPs per head of the population of the four UK countries and under this government the number of GPs working in Scotland has increased by seven per cent.”
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