South Scotland Labour MSP has said that the SNP Scottish Government must fix the NHS recruitment crisis after figures revealed that NHS Dumfries and Galloway spent nearly £10 million on medical locums in the year ending 31^st March 2019.

Latest figures from the Scottish Government’s Information Services Division (ISD) Scotland show that in the financial year ending 31^st March 2019 £9,918,453 was spent on medical locum staff. This is a significant increase on the £5.2 million spent on medical locums in the same period five years ago.

Colin Smyth said, “The number of constituents contacting me about the lack of Doctors and increasing waiting times has increased since I was elected in 2016. With NHS Dumfries and Galloway spending nearly £10 million on medical locums it is clear that the local health board is struggling to fill the gaps left by the lack of GPs across the country and the increased difficulty to recruit Doctors across all disciplines.

Locally, we have seen huge changes to GP services with the two GP surgeries in Moffat merged and patients continuing to be transferred from Lockerbie to Lochmaben Medical Practice as the local health board struggle to recruits GP’s.

The SNP created this recruitment crisis and they must take urgent access to fix it. With the number of GP and Doctor vacancies going unfilled increasing across the region local health boards will have to spend more tax payers cash on medical locums to protect patient care as much as possible.”