Why 8am phone queues for GP appointments have become normalised under SNP

Every morning, thousands of worried Scots will be waiting in a queue hoping to get an appointment with their GPs. As they listen to the automated voice telling them to stay on the line, they could be forgiven for wondering how many other people could possibly be sick at the same time.

In fact, what’s changed is the ratio of GPs to patients. Each full-time equivalent GP has on average 227 more patients than they did a decade ago. That means, in theory, if everyone registered with a GP practice called up, each GP at the practice could be fielding 1,743 appointment requests.

Thankfully, in reality not everyone needs the doctor at once. But what’s clear is that the SNP have presided over a crisis in primary care. GPs work really hard but they are burned out, with BMA Scotland warning in 2023 that practices were “running on empty”.

Getting an appointment to see a GP is a struggle for many patients (Picture: Anthony Devlin) | PA

GPs key to healthier future

Even if you’re lucky enough to avoid the 8am queue, the daily competition for appointments has a knock-on effect. It increases pressure on hospitals, as patients will rush to A&E with untreated conditions that could have been dealt with by a simple prescription.

Primary care is also essential for building an NHS fit for the future. Early interventions can save lives, as Sir Chris Hoy has reminded us with his call to identify and screen younger men most at risk of prostate cancer.

And there will always be cases where patients turn up complaining of minor symptoms – only to be referred on a fast-track for surgery.

GPs, rooted in their communities, are also best placed to lead the conversations we need to have if this is to be a happier, healthier country. It’s GPs who have the sensitive conversations with patients about giving up smoking, eating less sugar – the lifestyle changes that could help us live healthy lives for longer.

SNP underfunding

With Scotland languishing at the bottom of the Western European life-expectancy league table and lagging behind other devolved nations, we clearly need more GPs not less.

Ultimately, the long anxious wait in a phone queue isn’t about an individual GP’s decision to retire, but the SNP government’s failure to fund primary care.

For years, the Royal College of General Practitioners has called on the SNP to direct at least 11 per cent of the NHS budget into primary care to meet the population’s needs.

Yet in Scotland, spending on core general practice is only 6.25 per cent of the total NHS budget, and funding per patient in the most deprived areas is roughly equal to the least deprived, despite much higher levels of need.

Labour’s ten-year plan

In England, Labour Health Secretary Wes Streeting identified the shift from hospital to community and from sickness to prevention as two of the driving forces behind the ten-year plan for the NHS. Primary care sits at the heart of both these shifts.

But while the UK Labour government delivered a record additional £5.2 billion budget settlement to Scotland, it’s up to the SNP to ensure that the money is well spent. And patients will judge for themselves whether they see the difference next time they try to get an appointment with their GP.

Jackie Baillie is MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour’s deputy leader and her party’s spokesperson for health