Question reference: S6W-26351
- Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
- Date lodged: 21 March 2024
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Current status: Answered by Neil Gray on 16 April 2024
Question
To ask the Scottish Government what estimate it has made of the investment that will need to be made in GP services in each of the next five years, broken down by NHS board.
Answer
To support general practice services, we have significantly expanded the primary care multi-disciplinary team workforce, with over 4,700 staff working in services including physiotherapy, pharmacy and phlebotomy at March 2023.
We are supporting development of these teams through an annual investment of £190 million in the Primary Care Improvement Fund which is distributed on an NRAC basis.
While we have made significant progress, we know that implementation gaps remain. That is why we have introduced the Phased Investment Programme, working with a small number of areas to demonstrate what a model multidisciplinary team can look like in practice. This programme will strengthen the evidence base on the national context for the implementation of multidisciplinary teams and inform future long term Scottish Government investment.
In addition, we have submitted our annual evidence to the DDRB for its recommendations on a pay uplift for GPs and will consider them carefully.