GP recruitment is a "looming crisis" for the NHS in Scotland, Labour has claimed.
The party has called for the Scottish Government to take action after 50 GP partners raised "serious and detailed concerns" about the family doctor workforce in Scotland.
The partners were responding to a survey of GP practices by Labour's health spokesman Richard Simpson.
He sent out a questionnaire to all 987 practices in Scotland and received responses from 330 practices across all 14 health board areas.
Mr Simpson's survey found that almost one in four GP partners are close to retirement age.
It revealed 92 unfilled GP vacancies and 68 sessional GP vacancies - which covers locums and other doctors who cover sickness and holiday leave.
Dr Simpson said he also received "over 50 emails from partners who raised serious and detailed concerns about their perceived crisis' in GP practice and the need for action".
A separate survey of health boards by the BBC found that 42 practices were now under the control of NHS boards.
Dr Simpson said: "A family doctors crisis is looming in Scotland, but patients across the country are feeling the effects now.
"We are seeing fewer doctors serve more people, an increasing number of practices where the NHS has to step in to sort it out, and an increasing number of vacancies across the country.
"Patients are being let down now but it is set to get even worse unless the SNP Government in Edinburgh get their act together.
"Between GP partners retiring in next decade and emigration rates of newly qualified doctors continuing, we are going to see primary health care come under crushing pressure, particularly as our population ages."
Public Health Minister Maureen Watt said: "GP surgeries run directly by health boards make up a small percentage of the total number of practices in Scotland and it's important to note that this number has changed very little over the past decade.
"This is a legitimate part of the GP contract and happens for a number of reasons. Often it is more appealing to GPs to be in a salaried post, and in rural and deprived areas there can be many benefits for practices to adopt this model.
"It is vital that practices work in a way that best serves the local community and this agreement gives them the flexibility to work with the health board in order to provide the best possible services for their patients."
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel