Professor John Robertson OBA
The BMA Scotland really needs to think about their relationship with the Scottish Government before they start making claims like the above.
Specifically on GP supply and access, a useful exercise might be to look south. From LBC News yesterday:
Wes Streeting hits out at BMA for ‘misleading’ claims amid GP access row The Health Secretary and the union are locked in a dispute over changes to how patients can contact their family doctors.
Before looking at the relationship between the Scottish Government and doctors as seen from the BMA UK, let’s have a look at the critical factor in whether a service is really hanging in the balance, staffing.
What are the numbers?
There has actually been a slight 1.3% improvement in the ratio of the number of patients to GPs in England, since September 2024, from 2 270 per FTE GP to 2 241 patients per GP. 1
In Scotland, a more significant 3.1% improvement from 1 734 to 1 680 per FTE GP.2
And in Wales, from 2 375 to 2 440, a 2.8% worsening.3
So, in Scotland each GP is responsible for 1 680 patients while in England and Wales it’s between 2 241 and 2440, around 560 more, nearly one third more. That can’t be healthy, can it?
Sources:
- https://digital.nhs.uk/data-and-information/publications/statistical/patients-registered-at-a-gp-practice/september-2024
- https://publichealthscotland.scot/publications/general-practice-demographics-data-visualisation/general-practice-demographics-data-visualisation-up-to-31-march-2024/
- https://www.gov.wales/general-practice-workforce-31-march-2024-html
What is the patient satisfaction level?
From Scottish Household Survey 2024: Satisfaction with Local Health Services and Sport and Leisure Facilities, published today:
Across Scotland, the percentage of adults who said they were satisfied with the quality of local health services has fallen by 6 percentage points from 67% in 2023 to 61% in 2024. 69% of respondents living in Remote Rural areas said they were satisfied with the quality of local health services compared with 63% living in Large Urban Areas and 57% in Other Urban Areas. https://www.gov.scot/publications/scottish-household-survey-2024-local-health-services-and-local-authority-sport-and-leisure-facilities/
From The King’s Fund, in April 2025:
31% of people in England were satisfied (“very” or “quite” satisfied) with local GP services in 2024. This is the lowest recorded level for GP services since the survey began in 1983, down from 34% in 2023, with dissatisfaction rising to 49%. https://www.kingsfund.org.uk/insight-and-analysis/reports/public-satisfaction-nhs-social-care-in-2024-bsa
31% in England and 61% in Scotland, almost twice the level.
As for the higher level of satisfaction in rural parts of Scotland, is that what you hear much or is it more this kind of thing?
Rural patients at risk from ‘dangerous’ shortage of doctors – ATIENTS are at risk from a “dangerous” shortage of doctors in some areas with overstretched hospital departments “barely able to provide a service” due to vacancies, a medical leader has warned. https://www.heraldscotland.com/news/23573790.rural-patients-risk-dangerous-shortage-doctors/
Who is that ‘medical leader‘, we wonder? Must be an NHS consultant or University research director, no?
No, it’s this trade union guy and part-time Highland GP:
How the BMA in England must wonder WTF their Scottish colleagues are on about?
From the Guardian July 13, 2023, live feed 08.34:
BMA leaders Dr Robert Laurenson and Dr Vivek Trivedi said:
Today marks the start of the longest single walkout by doctors in the NHS’s history, but this is still not a record that needs to go into the history books.
We can call this strike off today if the UK Government will simply follow the example of the government in Scotland and drop their nonsensical precondition of not talking whilst strikes are announced and produce an offer which is credible to the doctors they are speaking with.
The pay offer on the table to junior doctors in Scotland and how it was reached throws into sharp relief the obstinate approach being taken by the Prime Minister and the Health Secretary, Steve Barclay.
The Health Secretary has said there can be no talks while strikes are planned – Scotland has proved him wrong. He said above 5% wasn’t realistic – Scotland proved him wrong. He refused to even acknowledge the concept of pay restoration – Scotland proved this is not only possible but essential.
The BMA leaders said talks have to be resumed, adding:
The government’s refusal to talk with junior doctors in England who have strikes planned is out of keeping with all norms of industrial action.
Doctors have a right to expect that as in Scotland, and as in many other recent industrial disputes, talks will continue right up to the last minute to try and reach a deal without the need to strike.
The complete inflexibility we see from the UK government today is baffling, frustrating and ultimately destructive for everyone who wants waiting lists to go down and NHS staffing numbers to go up.
The government has missed chance after chance to provide a credible offer and potentially bring to an end the industrial action by junior doctors in England and whilst there are differences between junior doctors and governments in England and Scotland, the UK government has far more financial freedom to give doctors what they deserve. https://www.theguardian.com/politics/live/2023/jul/13/doctors-strike-nhs-rishi-sunak-pay-uk-politics-live
Chair BMA Scotland, Dr Iain Kennedy was strangely not available for comment. Having tea with Sandesh Gulhane MSP (Con)?
Talking-up Scotland 'Albatraz' 
It’s all in the name, ‘British’/BMA. I am sure what the BritNat media really means is they will match England’s abysmal GP situation, in Scotland. SNP need to lay out how public services in England are in dire need, and what’s coming to Scotland if folks who are brainwashed by the BritNat media, don’t wake up pronto.
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