Question reference: S4W-25257
- Asked by: Michael Russell, MSP for Argyll and Bute, Scottish National Party
- Date lodged: 2 April 2015
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Current status: Answered by Shona Robison on 30 April 2015
Question
To ask the Scottish Government how many GPs work in the NHS Highland area; how many work in rural practices, and how many vacancies there were for posts in rural practices as of 31 March 2015.
Answer
<>NHS Highland has confirmed there are 450 GPs noted on their performers list, with around 70 of these being locums. Statistics on the number of GPs per region are published by NHS Scotland and are available via the following link:http://www.isdscotland.org/Health-Topics/General-Practice/Workforce-and-Practice-Populations/Workforce/
We can confirm there are 100 practices in the board area.
NHS Scotland publishes data on the number of GPs by health board area and community health partnership area, which gives some indication of rurality but does not provide any further breakdown.
GP practices are mostly all independent contractors who are free to decide (within the context of the services they must provide under contract with boards) exactly how they set up their operations in terms of employing staff. The number of vacancies for GP posts are not held centrally as this is a matter for individual GP contractors as employers.
NHS Highland are currently aware of 15 ‘known vacancies’, though not restricted to rural areas, where a GP has left and the practice are trying to find a replacement (regardless of number of sessions or time commitment).