People in Scotland have lost more than 100 days’ worth of out-of-hours care from their GP in the last three months because of recruitment problems, research suggests.
The Scottish Labour party, which got the information through the Freedom of Information Act, said that general practices in Scotland were facing their biggest crisis general in a generation.
There were 826 unfilled out-of-house sessions in the last three months in Scotland, Scottish Labour party said, equating to around 2,478 hours of unfilled sessions, or 103 days.
Dr Richard Simpson, Scottish Labour public services spokesman, said: ‘Under the SNP Government in Edinburgh we have seen a drop in funding totalling over £1 billion, fewer medical students, fewer trainee vacancies being filled and now fewer out of hours sessions being staffed.
‘Action now is vital because general practice in trouble will affect every part of our NHS, from missed waiting times for mental health to increasing pressure on A&E because people can’t see a local doctor.’
In NHS Lanarkshire, where out-of-hours services have been reduced from five to two centres, there were 209 unfilled sessions, the Scottish Labour party said.
In Tayside where the centres in Perth & Angus are partly closed there were 275 unfilled sessions.
