by BILL HEANEY
Scottish Liberal Democrat leader Alex Cole-Hamilton today called for Scottish Government plans to open 20 more GP walk-in centres to be paused immediately, after it was revealed some of the first centres are seeing as few as three patients per day.
New figures published today by Public Health Scotland reveal that for the six walk-in centres that had been open for the full month of June, just 2,156 cases were reported. The new facility in Dundee saw just 3 patients a day, and it was a similar story in Benbecula, Hawick and Lerwick (4, 6 and 7 patients a day respectively).
The plan for walk-in centres was launched with a promise from John Swinney that they would provide “one million additional GP and nurse appointments”.
However, they have been criticised by GPs and medical bodies, including the BMA, who warned the centres “offer a fraction of the services of a standard GP surgery, at greatly increased cost”.
Scottish Liberal Democrats would make it easier for everyone to see a GP and skilled staff locally by:
• Embedding 900 new multidisciplinary patient-facing staff based in GP practices and neighbourhood health teams, including nurses, physiotherapists, pharmacists and mental health professionals.
• Freeing up GPs’ time by empowering pharmacists to do more prescribing, making use of secure health records.
• Establishing a rolling 10-year NHS Workforce Plan, ensuring issues are addressed early on.
• Boosting access to housing for health workers to enable them to take up posts, creating new dedicated key worker housing.
• Creating a Health and Social Care Staff Assembly, putting the experience and exercise of those who know their service best at the heart of the Scottish Government’s response to the crises they face.
Alex Cole-Hamilton, RIGHT, said: “My party listens to doctors and nurses. As a result, we have always been sceptical of this SNP scheme which risks being a costly distraction.
“These figures are even worse than many might have imagined and will have SNP ministers sweating. Their plans for more of these centres must now be put on hold while the learning from these first centres is taken seriously.
“It doesn’t make sense to spend millions rolling out more of these while some of the centres that are up and running are seeing as few as three patients a day.
“After nineteen years, the SNP cannot be trusted to help staff or patients. This is a party that hired less than one in 10 of the GPs they promised in 2017.
“From hiring more specialist staff to work alongside GPs and manage patient need, to enabling pharmacists to do more prescribing, Scottish Liberal Democrats have got a realistic plan to get everyone the first-rate healthcare they need when they need it.”