Scotland has been promised hundreds of extra GPs after signing a ground-breaking deal aimed at cutting red-tape and increasing multi-disciplinary working in practices.

The country is set to learn lessons from Wales which has boosted GP recruitment with golden handshakes aimed at attracting doctors to remote rural areas.

The Scottish government promised some £7.5 million towards the scheme.

A new GP contract has won backing from a special conference of local medical committees – but still must be approved by a vote of all Scotland’s GPs, starting on Thursday.

Doctors at the conference voted overwhelmingly to agree that their new contract tackles funding problems and will help improve the attractiveness of general practice.

They also agreed it would help them tackle their “unsustainable workload.”

Scottish secretary Shona Robison told the conference that she hoped to increase GP numbers by at least 800 over ten years.

She said: “GP recruitment concerns are not unique to Scotland, however our commitment to invest £7.5 million, including expanding the remote and rural incentive scheme and relocation funds, should have a real impact going forward.”

Dr Alan McDevitt, who chairs the British Medical Association’s Scottish GP committee, said: “Together with the wider measures in the proposed contract to make general practice a more attractive career, I believe that this can have a significant impact on improving GP recruitment and retention.”

The news was welcomed by the Royal College of GPs.

Scottish chair Dr Carey Lunan said the country needs 856 full-time equivalent GPs by 2021.

Dr Lunan said: “As with any announcement of this kind, we are keen to see the detail around this planned increase in GP numbers, and as practices continue to struggle on a daily basis, the College is clear that work needs to begin straight away to ensure that this commitment can be met.”