GPs Call On Government To Deliver Scottish Solutions For Scottish Patients, UK

Main Category: Primary Care / General Practice
Article Date: 25 Apr 2008 - 1:00 PDT

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Speaking at the Annual Conference of Scottish Local Medical Committees in Clydebank today [Thursday 24 April 2008], the leader of Scotland's GPs criticised the Scottish Government for failing to work with the profession to create a Scottish solution to deliver extended hours in general practice. Instead, he said, the Government had followed Gordon Brown's lead.

During his speech to more than 100 GP delegates from across Scotland, Dr Dean Marshall, chairman of the BMA's Scottish General Practitioners Committee, accused the Scottish Government of failing to work with the profession to deliver extended hours access to patients. He said:

"The SNP Government has lacked the confidence or will to extract itself from the political agenda which is driving health policy in England. A prime example of this is the Scottish Government's decision to apply the English plan for extended hours. A plan that was devised to deal with a particular problem in South East England which is completely different to the situation we have here in Scotland and which doesn't take into account our vastly different geography and demographics.

"If this is an example of doing things differently in Scotland and working with the profession then I fear for the future of NHS general practice in Scotland…"

"I still cannot understand why an SNP Government that was willing to invest new NHS resources and be flexible in its implementation was not bold enough to come up with a Scottish solution for extended hours. The Government could have shown great leadership and worked with us to develop something that GPs could deliver and was what the public wanted. Instead they decided to follow Gordon Brown's lead."

Dr Marshall warned that patients' expectations for extended access to general practice were being raised by Government and GPs would bear the brunt of their disappointment. He said:

"Even if practices do decide to deliver the service, patients will not have access to the full range of services that are available during the day and there is no way to guarantee that these pre-booked appointments will be available only to patients who work during the day. It is we, GPs, that will have the job of explaining this to our patients and we will be the ones, literally, paying the price when patient surveys reflect that disappointment."

Dr Marshall also spoke of his anger at the pay award for GPs announced earlier this month which for many practices will mean a third year without any increase in practice funding:

"Once again, GPs are looking at a further decrease in funding. There is a clear attempt to erode the Minimum Practice Income Guarantee (MPIG), a guarantee that is heavily relied upon by the vast majority of GP practices in Scotland.

"I am under no illusion about how angry you will be about this year's pay award. No amount of window dressing will cover up the fact that this is another pay cut for GPs but I can assure you we will not be accepting this decision without a fight.

"To say I am disappointed with developments over the last year is an understatement. Perhaps GPs the length and breadth of the country expressed it better when 96% of you said that you had no confidence in this government's handling of the NHS."

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