GPs' out-of-hours cover for festive period costs health boards £2.5m

The costs, obtained through Freedom of Information requests, revealed that more than 1.2m was spent on out-of-hours GP provision over the four-day Christmas shutdown from 25-28 December.

The following week's four-day New Year closure cost boards more than 1.3m. Patients' campaigners said the costs of providing out-of-hours care needed to be closely monitored as the health service faces tighter budgets.

But doctors pointed out that the cost still only amounted to 6p per person in Scotland a day to provide emergency care for the entire population.

In December, Scotland on Sunday - The Scotsman's sister paper - revealed that doctors in some parts of Scotland were being paid up to 145 an hour for working over the festive period - around three times the normal rates.

Some health boards have since revealed that increased demand over Christmas led to their costs rising more than expected for out-of-hours services.

NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde - Scotland's biggest health board - spent 324,751 on GP cover over Christmas and 347,610 over New Year.

The board said: "Our GP out-of-hours service saw a higher than predicted 10 per cent increase in activity during the recent festive period compared with the previous year, including a 25 per cent increase in face-to-face consultations at our primary care emergency centres.

"This, as you would expect, required an increased level of staffing."

Demand was boosted last year because Christmas fell at the weekend, leaving four days in a row where GP practices were closed. Scotland faces another two four-day shut-downs of GP practices later this year with the Easter weekend from 22 to 25 April, followed by the Royal Wedding and May Day Bank Holiday from 29 April to 2 May.

Health boards have been responsible for providing out-of-hours GP cover since a new contract was introduced in 2004. Doctors relinquished part of their pay in return for passing on this responsibility.

Margaret Watt, chair of the Scotland Patients Association, said boards needed to monitor the high costs of providing out-of-hours care at a time when they were facing financial constraints.

"It is a lot of money and I think there should be a format where there are doctors who are employees of the NHS, not employed by themselves, and get their salary on a monthly basis."

The British Medical Association defended the expenditure.Andrew Buist, deputy chairman of the BMA's Scottish GPs committee, said: "These costs must be looked at in perspective and in the context of the provision of all emergency care during weekends and public holidays.

"To provide emergency primary care services for the whole population during the eight days over Christmas and New Year, only four days of which were public holidays, the cost was just 6p per person in Scotland per day."

Health secretary Nicola Sturgeon said: "Health boards are responsible for ensuring that they have appropriate clinical services in place over the public holidays. It's important that these services are clinically effective as well as offering the best possible value for money."