Rural Scottish patients warn against 'one-size-fits-all' policies

“There needs to be more effort to look at the impact of people in rural areas when [policy] decisions are made,” rural patients have told the Scottish Government’s Remote and Rural Healthcare inquiry.

Referring specifically to vaccination programmes and maternity services, participants highlighted problems gaining access to healthcare in rural areas, with key issues being transport, travel time, and costs incurred to access district and centralised services.

In a series of informal online engagement events to inform the Scottish Health, Social Care and Sport Committee inquiry, patients said that strategies for remote and rural areas, particularly in the North of Scotland, failed to recognise the intricate nature of different areas.

Rural GPs also raised challenges such as recruiting non-medical professionals in rural areas, and with retention: rural GPs said it was difficult to invest in training when future funding is unclear. Smaller practices also have limited succession planning.

Participants also reported an increase in independent contractor practices being handed back to health boards: in North Highlands, a third of practices are now board run, the inquiry was told.

On the Scottish GP contract, GPs said it had “noble foundations” but was not geared towards supporting the independent contractor model. One participant argued that there was something about the relationship between rural practices and the Scottish Government that was fractured at the time of the introduction of the new GP contract.

Political News Scotland