Scottish Government urged to increase investment in GP services nationwide

The Scottish Government has been urged to increase its investment in GP services across Scotland.

It follows a pledge by the Conservatives in England to create an estimated 50 million extra appointments at GP surgeries.

According to the Tories, its £2 billion spending programme will see Scotland receive an additional £200 million in Barnett funding.

And the Scottish Tories say that entire figure must be directed towards GP services in Scotland.

The Scottish Tories say that the 200 million included in the Barnett funding must be directed towards GP services in Scotland. Picture: PA

Scottish Conservative health spokesman Miles Briggs said: "We are facing a GP crisis in Scotland and Nicola Sturgeon's SNP Government is failing to address it.

"Audit Scotland warned earlier this year that the SNP Government will struggle to recruit the GPs we need over the coming decade.

"Nicola Sturgeon failed to plan ahead when she was health secretary and her mistakes are now letting down families who need quick and easy access to their doctor.

"Every penny of this welcome boost to the Scottish budget must be spent tackling our GP crisis."

He added: "The SNP's stewardship of our cherished NHS has been nothing short of scandalous.

"The people our NHS needs protecting from are the people who are supposed to be running it - Nicola Sturgeon's own Government."

The SNP's Dr Phillipa Whitford said: "The Scottish Government has passed every penny they've received in health resource consequentials to frontline healthcare in Scotland.

"This year alone the UK Tory government has short-changed Scotland's NHS by £90 million of previously promised funding.

"You simply can't trust the Tories, especially with our NHS. Boris Johnson appears ready to jeopardise the wellbeing of our health services through a desperate trade deal with Donald Trump which could more than double NHS drug costs.

"If the Tories refuse to back our NHS Protection Bill then we can be sure they won't protect our NHS in future."

Labour's 10-point plan

Meanwhile, as part of its election campaign, Scottish Labour outlined a 10-point plant to eradicate child poverty.

The majority of the policies in the plan - including scrapping Universal Credit for a new benefits system, introducing a £10-an-hour living wage, bringing in flexible and affordable year-round early-years childcare and extending free school meals to cover weekends and holidays - have been previously announced.

One new pledge is for an extra-curricular access fund to help poorer families pay for school trips which they otherwise could not afford.

Party leader Richard Leonard said: "The government's own figures tell us one in four children live in poverty and the majority of these are from working families.

"This is a disgrace that blights our society and demonstrates the glaring need for radical, structural change."