47. Dr Andrew Buist

The deputy chair of GPC Scotland is a man with a very big job this year.

He is part of the small negotiating team developing a new Scottish GP contract. Dr Buist says the changes will see the role of the GP becoming an ‘expert medical generalist in the community’.

We’ll know more in November, but it is likely to mean radical change in Scotland, with implications for the rest of the UK.

This year, Dr Buist has been busy negotiating a new protocol for GP urgent ambulance requests with the Scottish Ambulance Service that includes performance targets to meet GPs’ requests – which, he says, had been a longstanding annoyance to GPs.

But there remain problems. He has spoken out about austerity in Scotland, where health boards need to make combined savings of £40m this year. Dr Buist warned about the ‘longer waiting lists and more protocols’, such as trusts only seeing patients if they’ve had ‘certain tests, X-rays, meet criteria or don’t have any exclusion criteria’.

Why influential

Will have major part in implementing new Scottish contract

What others say

‘Quietly trying to make life better for coalface GPs’

Random fact

St Johnstone FC doctor