5. To ask the Scottish Government what steps it is taking to urgently address the reported maintenance backlog in general practitioner practices. (S6O-02500)

Over the next four years, we will invest £73 billion in health and care services and a further £1.3 billion in capital funding, doubling our investment in maintenance and equipment replacement to support their recovery, sustainability and reform. That investment is in addition to the annual primary medical services allocation, which includes £68 million for the provision and maintenance of the general practice estate. The Scottish Government will continue to work with boards to address financial pressures across the system.

The cabinet secretary will know that the current maintenance backlog in GP surgeries stands at £78.5 million, which is already over the budget that he has set out.

He knows that there is a shortage of GPs, that primary care budgets have been cut and that a recent British Medical Association survey found that only 5 per cent of doctors thought that their practice was sustainable. With services already stretched, what more can the cabinet secretary do to set aside capital funding during the next three years in order to repair GP practices?

I am not entirely sure that the figure that Jackie Baillie quoted is correct. Within the data that she is using, I suspect that there is a range of additional lifetime recurring costs, which is normal for capital projects.

As I have already outlined, we are in a situation in which the Scottish Government’s capital budget has been cut by the United Kingdom Government, which has a direct impact on how much we can invest in our capital estate. Alongside that, we are also having to deal with a significant increase in capital project costs as a result of construction inflation. We will continue to do everything we can to invest in capital projects, but there are significant challenges. A capital review is being taken forward by the Deputy First Minister in order to look at what further action we will have to take in order to address the financial pressures that we are facing in our capital budgets.