6. To ask the Scottish Government what action it is taking to increase the general practitioner workforce. (S6O-02209)

We are making good progress to increase the GP workforce. S ince 2017, GP head count has increased by 291 and a record 5,209 GPs are now working in Scotland.

We have increased medical undergraduate intake by 448 places since 2015-16, and we will also be increasing the number of general practice specialty training posts by 35 in 2023, with further uplifts being considered for 2024 and beyond. Fill rates for specialty training are at a record high, with a 99 per cent fill rate for 2022.

Last year, Humza Yousaf launched our GP recruitment marketing campaign, and we are providing significant investment in initiatives that ensure that being a GP remains an attractive career for those in the medical profession.

I spoke with staff at one of my local GP practices, and they told me that their unsuitable premises are making recruitment and retention difficult. They are currently operating in a building that is too small. What capital funding is available for building, developing or improving primary care facilities in Ayrshire and Arran?

I recognise the member’s point, because I have GP practices in my constituency that are experiencing similar challenges.

Part of the difficulty that we have at present is that the cut to our capital budget has resulted in the Scottish Government having less capital available to it. That is restricting the level of investment that we can make across the whole of the public sector.

Alongside that, projects that are presently in delivery or due to be delivered are experiencing very significant inflation as a result of construction inflation being markedly higher during the past year and a half.

All that is having a negative impact on the expansion of capital investment projects, including in primary care, but I assure the member that, once we have more flexibility in our capital budgets, we will always look at the opportunity to make more funding available to invest in areas such as primary care to support GP practices across the country.

Being a GP is a team effort. There is a disparity between agenda for change uplifts for national health service admin staff in hospitals and Review Body on Doctors’ and Dentists’ Remuneration uplifts for GPs, which is leaving primary care staff feeling devalued. We hear that staff are leaving general practice for comparable hospital posts.

A concerned practice manager wrote to Douglas Ross and me to express concern, as the disparity means that they are losing staff. That is putting pressure on practices to close and is leaving patients frustrated because they cannot contact their practice.

I am concerned that the cabinet secretary cares more about hospitals than primary care, which is where 90 per cent of all patient contact occurs. Will the cabinet secretary ensure parity between hospital and GP admin staff uplifts in pay so that primary care providers can recruit and retain the staff they desperately need?

I recognise the issue that the member raises, because it is one that I have discussed with GPs in my own constituency. We have passed on the uplift for general practice that was recommended by the DDRB.

I recognise the challenges that some of our GP practices face because of the agenda for change agreement for the rest of the NHS, but the reality is that the finances are not available to enable us to pass that on to primary care in the same way. The member will be well aware why that is the case; it is because of the financial circumstances that we face as a result of the appalling management of the United Kingdom economy—[

Interruption

.]—by his colleagues at Westminster.

The Deputy Presiding Officer:

Members, I keep having to say this. The point of having questions and answers is that we ask the questions and then we listen to the answers. Cabinet secretary, please continue.

I suspect that the Conservative members are interrupting because they do not like the answer. T he reality is that the Conservatives’ mismanagement of the UK economy has resulted in significant cuts to public expenditure, which is having a direct impact on our expenditure here in Scotland.

I hear what the member is saying—I recognise the challenges that that creates for general practice. However, I think that the member should also recognise the consequences of his own party’s actions at Westminster, which are having a direct impact on public expenditure here in Scotland.