A GP has warned doctors could make more mistakes if pressures on general practice are not eased, as more health centres limit registrations amid a shortage of recruits.
James McCallum, a GP at Newlands Medical Practice, in Bathgate, said much of the health service was under stress, but family doctors felt particularly exposed and some were becoming anxious about practicing safely.
"A lot of GPs are disappearing in their 50s for reasons including the pressure of what we are having to deal with on a day to day basis," he said. "There is pressure on appointments and it is quite hard to feel safe about what you do with restricted time. If you are just thrashed out under constant pressure, that is when you make mistakes. You feel like you might be cutting corners," he said.
Dr McCallum added: "General practice can be a great job and our GP system is very efficient and the envy of the world. But that can't work without the time to have conversations with patients."
Read more: Doctors call for 'safe staffing levels' in NHS Scotland
His comments came as a survey of GPs by their professional body the Royal College of General Practitioners (RCGP) Scotland found
89 per cent of GPs say they worry a lack of resources is putting patient care at risk and 58 per cent plan to leave or reduce their hours within five years.
The RCGP said 77 per cent of Scottish GPs worry about missing something serious with a patient because of their workload and
93 per cent of GPs also believe that, without more resources, waiting times for appointments will increase. The same proportion, 93 per cent, said morale had decreased over the last five years.
Read more: Doctors call for patients to be charged if they miss appointments
Meanwhile the RCGP said nearly eight out of ten (79 per cent) of GPs in Scotland worry general practice will be unrecognisable as we know it by the time of the 2021 Scottish parliamentary election.
Reacting to the findings, Dingwall GP Dr Miles Mack, Chair of RCGP Scotland, said the share of NHS funding allocated to general practice had declined from 9.8 per cent in 2005/6 to 7.4 per cent in 2014/15, despite an increase in the number of consultations. "GPs are already deeply concerned about the welfare of their patients," he said. "A wholesale departure of GPs now looks likely given the current conditions the profession faces. In that instance, patient safety clearly will suffer further."
He said the issue should be central in next week's Holyrood elections. "I call on all the parties to make commitments which will guarantee the future of the GP service and increase funding to a sustainable level."
Read more: GPs call for English family doctor reform plan to be adopted in Scotland
The RCGP has called for an extra 740 family doctors in Scotland after another survey of more than half of Scotland's GP practices found that 26 per cent had at least one GP vacancy, and of those, 41 per cent had been vacant for six months or longer.
The Scottish Government said £20 million had been allocated in March to alleviating pressures on the GP workforce.
A spokesman for the SNP said: "We're committed to increasing the proportion of the NHS budget being spent on primary care each year, and to increasing GPs numbers. To support this we're increasing GP training places from 300 to 400 per year.
"Our reforms will allow GPs to focus more on the patients who require their assessment, by bringing together a range of professionals in GP surgeries, including practice nurses, district nurses, mental health professionals, pharmacists, and allied health professionals, to help patients."
Scottish Labour pledged to provide increased places for medical students and more GP training places in its manifesto published yesterday, and said it would encourage more people to choose a career in general practice.
The Scottish Conservatives says GP budgets should increase and the share of the budget that GPs get should rise every year, with the re-introduction of prescription charges helping fund investment in more nurses, health visitors and GPs.
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