Around one in six practices in Scotland have at least one vacancy, a BMA study has found.
Published ahead of the Scottish LMCs conference today, the survey of 463 practices found that 17% had at least one GP vacancy,.
It also found that 75% said they had been unable to secure locum cover for at least a day over a one month period, while some practices reported they had been unable to secure locum cover for 15 days.
The conference is set to debate GP workforce issues and workload.
Dr Andrew Buist, deputy chair of the BMA’s Scottish GPC, said: ‘This survey provides a snapshot of the situation across Scotland and supports the anecdotal evidence that we are hearing from GP colleagues. Scotland is facing a GP recruitment crisis which is being further exacerbated by difficulties in securing locum cover.’
He added that the Scottish GPC was ‘calling on the Scottish Government to work with us so that we can improve workforce planning in the long term’.
