A warning that Scotland could have a "devastating" shortfall of more than 800 GPs in just four years has sparked fresh calls for Nicola Sturgeon to tackle the "crisis" facing family doctors.

Scottish Conservatives are calling on the First Minister to commit to spending more of the £12 billion annual health budget on general practice.

With the Royal College of General Practitioners (RCGP) forecasting Scotland could have a deficit of 830 family doctors by 2020, the Tories want 10% of all health funding to go to GPs by the end of the decade.

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Health spokesman Donald Cameron said the RCGP forecast "makes the scale of the GP crisis clear".

A shortfall of that number in the GP workforce would be "devastating for communities across Scotland", the Conservative MSP added.

Mr Cameron said: "Before the election, Nicola Sturgeon was on record saying that GPs must receive a greater share of the health pot. Yet she's been utterly silent on this since.

"Unless she acts, people will rightly conclude that the SNP promised one thing before an election, only to bury that promise after it.

"We want to see at least 10% of health funding going to general practice by 2020. That will help ease the crisis we currently see in general practice. And it will help the rest of the NHS by enabling GPs to do more."

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He spoke out as the RCGP warned the UK could have a shortfall of almost 10,000 GPs by 2020 - forecasting a deficit of 9,940 full-time posts across England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland.

This could leave 594 GP surgeries at risk of closure, the organisation added.

It is calling on the governments in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland to come up with plans to boost the number of GPs in their areas, pointing to the NHS England plan which aims to recruit 5,000 family doctors and an additional 5,000 other members of staff for surgeries.

The NHS England plan, which is supported by the RCGP, also includes a pledge to increase investment in general practice by £2.4 billion a year by 2020.

The RCGP has also launched its own video and guide which aims to "explode this dangerous myth" created by TV shows such as 24 Hours in A&E and Casualty that hospital doctors enjoy a more exciting and fulfilling career.

Chair Dr Maureen Baker said: "It is imperative that we recruit huge numbers of medical students and foundation doctors into general practice in order to keep the NHS on its feet.

"If we fail, there will be too few GPs to go round, practices will close and patient safety in general practice will clearly be at risk."

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She described general practice as being the "cornerstone of the NHS" but added: "Despite the fact that general practice is critical to the success of the NHS, there is a bizarre misconception in certain parts of the medical world that GPs merely treat coughs and colds.

"However, our Think GP video and guide explode this dangerous myth by showing that family doctors are expert medical generalists who have to manage and understand chronic long-term conditions and deliver the continuing care that our most complex of patients need.".

Dr Miles Mack, chair of RCGP Scotland, said: "There is nothing like being a GP.

"We are the cornerstone of the NHS with 90% of patient contact with the health service coming through primary care.

"I can have someone come through the door with a concerning cough and help spot their cancer early.

"Ten minutes later I can be helping a nervous, expectant, otherwise unsupported teenager through their pregnancy.

"Ten minutes after that I can be helping ease someone's mental distress, performing minor surgery or telling a relieved patient that their chest pain is due to a popped rib and not a heart condition. No other specialties get to do that."

He added: "Scotland needs hundreds more GPs and it needs them as soon as possible.

"The First Minister has said that the percentage share of NHS Scotland funding general practice should receive should be increased.

"With that commitment expected to come to fruition in the coming draft budget, now is the time to become a GP."

Scottish Labour health spokesman Anas Sarwar said: "The SNP cannot continue to ignore the GP crisis - we are now looking at a shortfall of more than 800 family doctors by the end of the decade thanks to more than a £1 billion cut from primary care under the SNP.

"Whilst further investment in general practice is needed, so too are reforms to the system to take the pressure off of family doctors and get patients the care they need faster. Labour would expand the role of pharmacists and roll out the Minor Ailment Service across Scotland.

"We know that not everyone who makes an appointment with their local surgery necessarily needs to see a GP.

"That is why Labour would also invest in specialist nurses and nurse practitioners, to make sure patients get the care they need from the most appropriate professional, freeing our GPs to focus on the cases for which they're required."

Liberal Democrat MSP Alex Cole-Hamilton said his party had "warned the government time and again that primary care services in Scotland are in trouble".

He stated: "We are now at crisis point and these figures suggest that we are still losing one GP every eight days.

"Tackling this problem means increasing spending on primary care. Lib Dem plans to embed mental health professionals in GP surgeries would also reduce pressure on doctors.

"The steps that the Scottish Government have taken so far will not plug this gap. It is time that the Scottish Government got serious about giving GPs and practice nurses the support they need."

A spokesman for Health Secretary Shona Robison said: "We will take no lectures from the Tories on this issue.

"Scotland already has the highest number of GPs per head in the UK - and the number has risen to an all-time high under the SNP while we have increased the number of new training places for GPs by 100 across Scotland this year alone.

"That solid track record of delivery is in stark contrast with the chaotic situation under the Tories in England, where the NHS has been gripped by unprecedented strike action from junior doctors.

"We are continuously looking at how we can improve primary care and GP services against the backdrop of continued budget pressures coming from Westminster.

"As part of that we will agree a new GP contract with the BMA from 2017 to deliver the best possible quality and availability of primary care services across communities and we will be investing £85 million over three years to put in place long-term, sustainable plans to better meet changing needs, including support for recruitment and retention."

Alison Johnstone MSP, the Scottish Greens' health spokeswoman, said: "Greens are wholly supportive of the Royal College of General Practitioners call for governments across these isles to set a clear target of increasing spending on general practice to '11% of the NHS budget'.

"We will be making the Scottish Government aware of this in this year's budget negotiations."