HEALTH secretary Shona Robison has defended the Scottish Government’s GP Recruitment and Retention Programme after the Tories branded it a massive flop.

According to figures obtained by Ruth Davidson’s party, the £2.5 million programme has delivered just 18 GPs, with the majority in Glasgow and Dundee.

In answer to a parliamentary question from Tory health spokesman Miles Brigg, Robison said there were five new GPs for Glasgow, seven in Tayside, three in Ayrshire and Arran, two in the borders and one in Lothian.

Robison said that despite problems, there was still higher number of GPs per head in Scotland than there was in the rest of the UK.

The fund was set up to explore why Scotland was having problems recruiting and retaining GPs.

It looked at proposals to increase the number of medical students choosing to go into GP training, as well as encouraging those wanting to work in more remote areas and poor parts of the country.

The Tory said it was another example of crisis in the NHS, and pointed out there was a predicted shortfall of more than 850 GPs by 2021.

Briggs said: “It’s no wonder Scotland is in the grip of a general practice crisis when the SNP government fails so miserably to attract doctors to the job.

“This was launched with the promise of delivering GPs for rural and deprived areas.

“Instead, it’s led to a handful of new appointments which will barely have had any impact at all.

“Indeed, at this rate it would take this scheme almost a century to address the shortage of 856 GPs we’re expected to have.

“This is just another blatant failing of the SNP workforce planning, and the consequences on the ground are a population struggling to get a GP appointment, and those family doctors who are left feeling the strain.”

Health Secretary Shona Robison said it was her government that had massively increased investment in GP services.

“We have increased investment in GP services annually since 2007, investing £71.6m this year in direct support of general practice, including increased funding for GP recruitment and retention,” she said.

“The Recruitment and Retention Programme has successfully delivered more GPs and builds on a wide range of initiatives at encourage GPs to enter and remain in the profession – for example, the ground-breaking Scottish Rural Medicine Collaborative involving ten rural NHS Boards, continued support for doctors returning to GP practice and developing a new recruitment website.

“Scotland has more GPs per head of population than the rest of UK. We are also working with the British Medical Association to deliver a new GP contract which will provide a strengthened and clarified role for Scotland’s GPs.”

Alan McDevitt, chairman of the British Medical Association’s Scottish GPs committee, is currently negotiating a new pay and conditions deal for Scottish GPs, which they hope will help with recruitment.

He told The Times: “What we are finding is young doctors are getting a perception of what it is like to work in general practice from the media and doctors saying how much workload pressure they are under.

“Why would you choose a future career that is in crisis, that sounds like a difficult job, that is not appreciated enough? That story has to change.”