You can get The National's Real Scottish Politics newsletter free and direct to your inbox every weekday. To sign up, click HERE and click the + button.
THE introduction of Scotland’s walk-in GP clinics has attracted some criticism with many newspapers reporting on how little they have been used so far.
After John Swinney announced a pilot rollout of the centres in October at SNP conference, figures from Public Health Scotland have revealed some of the centres have only had a handful of visits per day on average.
It was packaged as a solution to the 8am rush many people face in securing a GP appointment, so naturally this is now being framed as a failure.
It’s led opposition politicians to describe the policy as a “flop” and Dr Chris Provan, chair of the Royal College of General Practitioners, has said the centres are actually a distraction from positive investment the Scottish Government has made in general practice.
But are we making judgements on this policy too quickly?
Ten of the original 16 walk-in services have opened in the last five months and locations for a further 14 – bringing the total planned to 30 – are to be announced by the Scottish Government "soon".
These centres are all in quite different places in Scotland and in contrasting settings. There are centres in more remote locations like Lerwick, Stranraer, Hawick and Benbecula, while there are others in Edinburgh and Dundee. Meanwhile, some of the clinics are in community hospitals while others are in GP practices themselves.
Naturally, the numbers of people attending these clinics when they are all different in nature is going to happen and Public Health Scotland has warned direct comparisons should not be made because centres have different opening dates, opening hours and eligibility criteria.
Most clinics are only open to patients registered to nearby doctors’ surgeries and there are limits on the services they can provide, so it is not as simple as swapping your usual GP appointment for one at a walk-in centre.
There is also the point that the clinics are in their early stages and it does take time for the public to realise new services are in place.
However, it does seem that this policy will need some honest evaluation when the pilot concludes as there is genuine scepticism over it being able to solve the 8am rush as sold.
Ever since Tony Blair introduced a target for the NHS to let all patients see a GP within 48 hours, there has been political pressure driving the 8am rush. It’s not necessarily occurred because suddenly lots of people need to be seen immediately, it’s because that is the only way to get an appointment.
Many people don’t actually want to be seen on the day and would prefer to have a GP appointment when it fits in to their working and family life, or so they can see a particular doctor they are comfortable with, so walk-in centres aren’t necessarily a great solution to this issue compared to simply investing to increase capacity in primary care.
Green MSP Kayleigh Kinross-O’Neill said the Scottish Government cannot ignore the limited results delivered by the scheme so far, or the concerns raised by GPs, the British Medical Association and the RCGP and cannot “simply press ahead” with a wider rollout.
She has called for targeted investment in practices facing the greatest pressure and a major expansion in GP recruitment with more mental health support in surgeries.
It’s early days and it’s important not to jump to conclusions that this has been a failure of a policy.
But SNP Government will need to assess their impact thoroughly. Too often we see the Mastermind motto of “I’ve started so I’ll finish” applied in politics. If it looks like the SNP are flogging a dead horse, let’s hope we see some brave and honest reflection from Swinney and his colleagues.
You can get The National's Real Scottish Politics newsletter free and direct to your inbox every weekday. To sign up, click HERE and click the + button.
