CASH for family health services fell last year despite overall spending on the NHS topping more than £12 billion in Scotland.
New data from the NHS showed a decline in spending on the family health sector – the share of spending devoted to family doctors falling from 7.3% in 2013-14 to 6.8% this year.
This is despite a Scottish Government pledge that funding for primary care will increase to 11% of the frontline NHS budget by 2021-22. Primary care services at the 959 GP practices in Scotland cost £822 million last year, a rise of 2.7% in cash terms on 2016-17.
Family health is the second largest area of NHS expenditure after hospitals, with the figures showing £2.6bn was spent on it in 2017-18.
Spending on Scotland’s hospitals amounted to £6.6bn last year – a rise of 0.1% in real terms – with the sector amounting for 55% of NHS costs. The Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh (RCPE) warned: “For the NHS to survive financially, a proper funding plan must be in place.”
A spokesman for the RCPE said: “The cost of running the Scottish NHS rose to £12bn in 2017-18, indicating that we are spending around £1.5bn more than we were five years ago.
“A range of factors may explain this increase, including people living for longer with multiple health conditions, costs associated with new drugs and treatments, funding to facilitate the integration of health and social care, and increasing staff costs.
LibDem health spokesman Alex Cole-Hamilton, pictured above, said SNP “mismanagement has brought GP surgeries to crisis point”.
“A quarter of practices now have vacancies, up from just 9% in five years,” he said.
“The Scottish Government must end the underfunding of general practice and put a mental health practitioner in every surgery, easing some of the pressure on GPs and ending the scandal of poor access to mental health treatments.”
Health Secretary Jeane Freeman said the figures showed “good progress to our twin track approach of record investment coupled with reform in health and social care services”.
She said: “Importantly, we are continuing to see an increase in the balance of expenditure in primary care and community services from our acute sector.
“This is in line with our efforts to bring more services into the community so that people have better options closer to home, and do not need to spend time in hospital if they do not need to be there.”
Why are you making commenting on The National only available to subscribers?
We know there are thousands of National readers who want to debate, argue and go back and forth in the comments section of our stories. We’ve got the most informed readers in Scotland, asking each other the big questions about the future of our country.
Unfortunately, though, these important debates are being spoiled by a vocal minority of trolls who aren’t really interested in the issues, try to derail the conversations, register under fake names, and post vile abuse.
So that’s why we’ve decided to make the ability to comment only available to our paying subscribers. That way, all the trolls who post abuse on our website will have to pay if they want to join the debate – and risk a permanent ban from the account that they subscribe with.
The conversation will go back to what it should be about – people who care passionately about the issues, but disagree constructively on what we should do about them. Let’s get that debate started!
Callum Baird, Editor of The National
Comments: Our rules
We want our comments to be a lively and valuable part of our community - a place where readers can debate and engage with the most important local issues. The ability to comment on our stories is a privilege, not a right, however, and that privilege may be withdrawn if it is abused or misused.
Please report any comments that break our rules.
Read the rules here