GP funding 'failure' putting patients at risk, RCGP report claims Patients are being put at risk by the Scottish Government's "failure to adequately fund GPs," according to a report by an industry body. Long waiting times for appointments, short consultations and weakening relationships between doctors and patients are contributing to a "crisis in general practice," the Royal College of General Practitioners Scotland (RCGP) said. Analysis of figures from the Scottish Government's Health and Experience Survey 2013/14 and a ComRes poll carried out earlier this year led RCGP to warn of "dangerous consequences for patients in the light of continued underfunding." The industry body said the Draft Budget for next year showed a real-terms funding drop of 2.2% for GPs but the Scottish Government said it has protected and increased the resource budget for NHS Scotland, adding that GP funding is now at a record level. The poll found that a majority of people believe there are too few GPs and would like to see funds moved from other parts of the health service to GPs. One in four Scots said they were unable to obtain an appointment with their GP within a week and, when this happened, 11% of people said they would neither take the later appointment nor seek help elsewhere. RCGP said this raised concerns about untreated conditions. Dr John Gillies, chair of RCGP Scotland, said: "When the crisis in general practice clearly shows patient safety to be under threat, it is incumbent upon the Scottish Government to act. Further cuts to the resources GPs have with which to care for patients can only exacerbate the problem. A real-terms drop in funding share of 2.2%, as outlined in the Draft Budget 2015/16, can only deepen the current, very real crisis. This drop stands directly against the 71% of Scots who would like to see funding move from other parts of the health service to general practice. For some time now, RCGP Scotland have been calling, with the backing of the public and of other health organisations through our Put Patients First campaign, for the strain on general practice to be eased. General practice requires 11% of the NHS spend to adequately look after our patients. If the situation is not rectified, the consequences for the NHS in Scotland and for patients could be even more severe. Resource An RCGP petition with thousands of signatures demanding that the situation is addressed is to be handed to the First Minister's office this week. Health Secretary Alex Neil said: "Despite cuts in our overall budget from Westminster, the Scottish Government has protected and increased the resource budget for NHS Scotland and GP funding is now at a record level. The number of GPs in Scotland has increased by 5.7% under this Government and the number of GPs per head of population is substantially higher in Scotland than England. This year our £8.2m increase in funding for the GP contract was double that recommended by the GP's pay body and was warmly welcomed by the BMA. Last year, 87% of patients rated their overall experience of care by the GP surgery as excellent or good. While this is a strong record, we are continuing to improve access and the latest GP contract substantially cuts bureaucracy to allow GPs more time with patients. It also requires every single GP surgery in Scotland to review their access arrangements to ensure patients could get prompt access to appointments. We will go on working with GPs and stakeholders across Scotland to improve primary care services even further and I was happy to meet with the RCGP Scotland chair last week where we discussed all of the issues raised by the survey.