The Scottish Government has made a "complete and utter mess" of GP care, Labour claimed as it launched its own consultation on service.

Labour is to contact family doctors across the country and ask them for their opinion on ideas such as training more GPs, cutting down on red tape when substitute doctors are brought in and ensuring health bosses are notified if places in practices cannot be filled.

New leader Kezia Dugdale and public health spokesman Dr Richard Simpson launched the Fit for the Future consultation after releasing figures showing almost one in five trainee GP posts are vacant this year.

Of 305 places advertised to start last month, 66 remain unfilled, with the highest rate of vacancies in west central Scotland, a Freedom of Information request by the party disclosed.

Ms Dugdale and Dr Simpson made the comments as they visited a GP surgery in Glasgow.

Dr Simpson, who worked as a GP before becoming an MSP, said: "The nationalist government in Edinburgh has made a complete and utter mess of general practice in Scotland.

"It was their decision to drop the share of funding for general practice in Scotland by over £1 billion and their decision to cut funding for medical students.

"The result has been understaffed, overstretched practices with patients not receiving timely care.

"However, if we act now we can fix these problems. Scottish Labour are taking ideas to the Scottish medical community.

"It is then a matter for the SNP government if they want to look at Scottish Labour's positive plans or simply continue to sit on their hands."

Ms Dugdale said: "When I put together my new team, I said I wanted to face the country with a positive vision rather than just face off with the SNP in parliament.

"In Scotland, our public services face challenges and nowhere can that be clearer than in our health service.

"Today Labour is talking about better plans and better ideas, and we are putting them to the people who matter - family doctors themselves.

"We think our plans can make a real difference to general practice in Scotland and benefit patients across the country.

"We've seen a range of problems right across our NHS but getting primary care right will take the pressure off of our A&E wards, our hospitals and a range of other services."

Health Secretary Shona Robison said: "The number of GPs in Scotland has risen to a record high under this government.

"Scotland continues to have the most GPs per head of population in the UK and spending on primary care per head has risen since this government came to office. But we know more must be done - both short and long-term.

"As the First Minister said in her programme for government, we must support and transform primary care, and that's why over the next year, backed by our £60 million primary care fund, we will test new models of primary care in at least 10 sites across urban and rural Scotland as we develop a truly community health service.

"We have also, for the first time, undertaken meetings together with Scottish General Practitioners Committee to listen to GPs all around Scotland and have held joint discussions with all of Scotland's health boards over the last few months about what the future of general practice in Scotland could look like."