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More progress needed to improve general practice

  • Area of Work: The ALLIANCE
  • Type: News Item
  • Published: 27th March 2025

The report from Audit Scotland makes recommendations to address pressures on GPs and improve access to care.

A new report from Audit Scotland has raised concerns that progress toward achieving improvements in general practice has been too slow.

General practice plays a key role in improving people’s health and keeping people out of hospital. However, pressures on general practice have increased because of a growing and aging population, widening health inequalities and longer waits for hospital care.

The 2018 General Medical Services contract aimed to address financial pressures and growing workloads facing GPs, and to improve people’s access to care. However, the review found that the number of GPs has fallen, pressure on general practice has increased, and proposals to support GP teams with more nurses, physiotherapists and other specialists have moved more slowly than planned. Additionally, people report finding it more difficult to access care.

The report urges the Scottish Government to publish a delivery plan for general practice that sets out how it will work with Health and Social Care Partnerships and the Scottish GP Committee to improve the way general practice teams and multidisciplinary teams work together to provide services, focused on improving communication, collaboration, data sharing and clarity about responsibilities across the primary care workforce.

Access the report and easy read summary on Audit Scotland’s website.

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