The GP recruitment crisis facing Dumfries and Galloway is spiralling out of control according to local Labour MSP Colin Smyth after a Freedom of Information Request has revealed the high costs facing the local health board for locum GP’s.

The Freedom of Information request answered by NHS Dumfries and Galloway revealed that in the last three years the highest hourly rate for a locum GP was a staggering £140, with the lowest hourly rate at £70.

Colin Smyth MSP said, “These eye watering hourly rates for locum GP’s demonstrate the urgent need to tackle the GP recruitment crisis locally. It is bizarre that we are in a situation where a locum GP is being paid in a couple of days the equivalent of the monthly salary of a GP.

The reality is the SNP has underfunded primary care for over a decade and as a result family doctors are left over stretched, overworked and under too much pressure and that’s why so few people are pursuing General Practise as a career.

The figures revealed show the extent of the workforce crisis in only one part of our NHS. Labour’s workforce commission, made up of independent experts and health service staff, will examine solutions to that deliver real change for our health service here in Dumfries and Galloway.”