Scotland’s auditor has said the Government’s ambition to increase the GP headcount by 800 by 2027 is ‘not on track’, in a report which demands more transparency on NHS recovery.
The report, published today, calls on the Government to be clearer about how its NHS recovery plan is progressing by including more detailed actions and robust modelling.
Workforce capacity continues to be ‘the biggest risk’ to recovery, with health boards experiencing difficulty recruiting doctors, nurses and other health professions, according to the report.
The report predicts the GP recruitment target, identified as key to recovery, is ‘unlikely to be met’, since the GP workforce in Scotland, excluding trainees, has increased by only 113 since 2017.
This target was first announced in December 2017 along with £7.5 million support in the first year to recruit and retain GPs, particularly in rural areas.
Audit Scotland, a body set up to examine how public bodies spend public money, produced this report on the NHS in 2022 for the Auditor General of Scotland.
The auditors assessed the Government’s progress against its NHS Recovery Plan which was published in August 2021 and included targets for the following five years.
In addition to workforce concerns, the report said the Government should publish clearer information on waiting times for patients, given the backlog has continued to increase since the plan was published.
Auditor General Stephen Boyle said: ‘NHS staff remain under severe pressure and the Scottish Government is facing tough choices.
‘Money is tight but investment is needed in recovery. That means ministers have to prioritise which NHS aims can realistically be delivered. And they need to be more transparent about the progress they’re making.’
The report also highlighted concerns around the lack of capacity in Scotland’s GP practices for supervision of trainees ‘because there are currently not enough practices approved to accommodate planned increases in trainees’.
Last month, the BMA warned that around 2,000 new GPs are required to satisfy demand across practices in Scotland, and BMA figures at the end of last year showed that more than a third of Scottish practices had at least one GP vacancy.
