Practices in Scotland are all vulnerable, a leading GP has warned after the collapse of one of the largest because of doctor shortages.

Inverurie Medical Practice currently has more than 25,000 patients but is to return its contract in September because it does not believe it can recruit adequate numbers of doctors, it has been announced. Under contingency plans, the practice is likely to be taken over by the Aberdeenshire Health and Social Care Partnership.

In a statement to patients, the practice said: “Inverurie Medical Group is an independent business owned by a Partnership of GPs, which delivers General Medical Services to NHS Grampian. Unfortunately, the practice has been unable to recruit to several vacancies for a GP for some time. This is a national issue with many complexities and is not due to lack of funding or effort. The GP Partners (who ‘own’ the practice) have therefore come to the difficult decision to end the contract with NHS Grampian.”

The chair of the British Medical Association’s Scottish GP committee Dr Andrew Buist described the news as “a disaster for patient care”.

He said: “It’s something the BMA has been warning the Scottish Government about for some considerable time.
The reason for this is due to the difficulty of recruiting GPs, and the fact there are just not enough GPs in Scotland. It’s particularly telling in the case of this practice, because they’re a very large practice. For me it says there is no practice in Scotland who can consider themselves safe from this happening.
It needs absolutely urgent action from the Scottish Government to try and pull this back, if it’s not too late already.”

He added: “GPs are struggling simply to get to the end of every single day. We now have a new Cabinet Secretary and I hope Michael Matheson- whom I am seeking an urgent meeting with – will now finally review his Government’s approach and deliver the now urgent help we need to get out of what is a desperate situation.”

A Scottish Government spokesperson told The Scotsman: “Patients in Inverurie will continue to receive the primary medical services they need whatever service model is decided upon by NHS Grampian. A record number of GPs are working in Scotland, with more per head than in the rest of UK, and we are on track to deliver on our commitment of 800 additional GPs by end of 2027.”