The Scottish Government remains committed to the delivery of sustainable, high-quality healthcare in remote and rural areas. While it is the responsibility of NHS boards to recruit staff to ensure that they can deliver services, I expect boards to review current service provision where there are recurring recruitment difficulties, including using alternative staffing structures in situations in which that would meet the needs of patients.

We are supporting boards in that work. For example, I recently announced an additional £40 million of funding for general practitioner and primary care services over the next year, which will help fund local initiatives to improve GP and primary care services where there are particular pressures, such as in rural, remote rural and island communities.