General Practitioners and Consultants (Recruitment and Retention) (Rural Areas)

Part of the debate – in the Scottish Parliament at on 1 February 2024.

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Photo of Michael Matheson Michael Matheson Scottish National Party

I mentioned a range of measures that we are taking to support recruitment of GPs into rural areas. Alongside that, we are increasing the number of training places in general practice. I am sure that the member will be pleased to hear that, in the general practice specialty training programme this year, not only have we had an increase in places, but from the second quarter of the recruitment programme we are at 100 per cent for those who are looking to go into general practice. The combination of increased training places with the incentives that we have put in place to encourage doctors to work in our rural areas is part of the programme of work that we are undertaking to encourage more doctors to work in our rural communities.