Harley: Pause GP walk-in centres as low attendance rates persist

Scottish Liberal Democrat health spokesperson Adam Harley MSP has today said that the Scottish Government need to urgently rethink their plans to open 20 more GP walk-in centres, as figures continue to show very few patients attending them.

New figures published today by Public Health Scotland reveal that for the nine walk-in centres that had been open for the full month of July:

• Only 3,732 cases were reported.
• The new facility in Dundee saw just 4 patients a day in July.
• For the same month, the new facilities in Benbecula, Hawick, Dunoon and Lerwick all saw less than 10 a day.

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.

Adam Harley said:

“There is increasing evidence that these walk-in centres are not reducing the enormous pressure on GPs.

“The SNP government must listen to doctors and nurses, who have warned about this scheme being a costly distraction.

“It doesn’t make sense to spend millions rolling out more centres when several of the existing one are seeing very few patients and people are still experiencing an 8am rush to speak to their GP.

“Scottish Liberal Democrats want to see the government putting these plans on hold so that the learning from the first centres can be taken seriously.

“The focus needs to be on easing the burden on GPs so that we can free up their time and get everybody seen quicker.

“By hiring more specialist staff to work alongside GPs and enabling pharmacists to do more prescribing, we can get everyone the first-rate healthcare they need when they need it.”