Impressed by McDonnell report

Further to recent correspondence (Debate the NHS; SN, 29/11/15) I requested a copy of the paper Mike McDonnell mentioned.

I am very concerned about what can only be described as a crisis in GP recruitment in rural areas. This led me to second a motion on this very subject at the Labour Party conference in Perth last week.

It seems to me that there are many areas in which the Highlands and Islands routinely lose out because their needs can be very different to those of mainland Scotland, and imagination is required to find solutions, rather than a centralising ‘one size fits all’ approach.

Tavish Scott has done some useful surveys into the state of healthcare in Shetland and the results show that there are serious problems, but identifying problems is the easy part.

I was very impressed with the proposals in Mike McDonnell’s report, based on a lifetime of experience, a lot of research, and no political agenda. Two suggestions in particular seem to me to merit serious consideration:

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Introducing a form of sponsorship whereby health boards can apply for central funding to support medical undergraduates during the last four years of their training. After graduation the doctors would be contracted to spend five years in a rural practice. A similar approach has already been tried and tested by HM Armed Forces.

Appointing a second GP on a permanent basis in isolated single handed practices such as Whalsay and Yell, ensuring guaranteed holiday cover and continuity of medical care for patients (an approach already taken in the case of hospital consultants).

When there was an extended vacancy on Whalsay recently, the locum cost amounted to almost £250,000 during the year. Both of the suggestions above would remove the need to rely on expensive locums, and the resultant savings would offset the cost of the schemes.

Shetland is the most remote NHS outpost and the health board could be given the resources by central government operate a pilot scheme which could have wider applications throughout the Highlands and Islands.

Robina Barton
Bressay
Prospective Labour Candidate for Holyrood 2016