John Swinney SNP speech: Walk-in GP centres open until 8pm daily to be rolled out across Scotland
John Swinney has made a commitment to seven-day-a-week walk-in GP centres
John Swinney has pledged to roll out a "nationwide network of walk-in GP services" that will be open until 8pm daily, as doctors warned the same strategy south of the Border had “not demonstrated good value for money”.
The SNP leader set out the pledge to transform the NHS into a seven-day-a-week institution, in a keynote speech delivered at his party’s conference in Aberdeen.
Mr Swinney has laid down the gauntlet to Labour on the NHS, making the health service a key election issue in an attempt to overtake Anas Sarwar’s vow to “end the 8am rush” for appointments.
It is understood the 15 centres to open in the first phase of the policy would have a price-tag of around £30 million and be able to deal with one million appointments when fully up and running. But GPs have warned recruitment issues are a “fundamental problem” with the strategy.
Speaking in his keynote SNP conference speech on Monday, Mr Swinney announced his party would commit to the community GP walk-in centres, open every day from noon to 8pm.
Mr Swinney pledged the first facility would be open within a year. The locations are yet to be confirmed.
In his speech, Mr Swinney admitted "one key issue I hear about is the ‘8am rush’ for appointments".
He said: "We want to make it easier for you to see a GP - where and when it works for you. That is why I can announce today that this SNP Government will open a nationwide network of walk-in GP services.
“Based in your community, on your local high street, near your child’s school, or close to your workplace."
Mr Swinney added: "They will break from the status quo. They will add to the care we already value, staffed by GPs and nurses, open from 12 noon to 8pm.
"And you won’t need to call up for an appointment. That means more people can go after work - when it fits with their lives. And to make that even easier, they will be open seven days a week."
The First Minister added: “This is just the start. We will expand this network, but it will begin with 15 sites across Scotland.
“They will deliver over one million additional GP and nurse appointments. And the first will be up and running within the year. That is personalised care, on your doorstep. That is self-government working. That’s the SNP Government working for Scotland.”
A Scottish Government source acknowledged similar facilities had been operating in other parts of the UK for almost 20 years in a “well tried and tested approach”, but there was a need to “work out how to do this the right way for Scotland”.
The source said: “The challenge that has been put to us is that we too often ask people to fit around the structured services rather than the structured services fit around people.”
Talks with the British Medical Association (BMA) over doctor contracts and recruitment are “ongoing”, but warnings have been made over the proposal.
Dr Iain Morrison, chair of the British Medical Association (BMA) Scottish general practitioners committee, said: “Restoring funding and shifting the balance of care to general practice will provide the foundations from which we can look to a brighter future for our practices and patients. However, we cannot afford to see essential resources lost into pilot schemes with limited potential.
“We know walk-in centres used elsewhere in the UK have not demonstrated good value for money. It is clear that resources must be directed into core, essential services, such as general practice, to deliver the NHS service in Scotland that people deserve and want.
“We are happy to continue a dialogue with the Scottish Government on how best this can be achieved once we see details of this proposal.”
Recruitment issues will need to be address by the Scottish Government in the run-up to May’s Holyrood election.
A GP workforce survey showed there were 3,591.5 whole-time equivalent GPs in Scotland as of March. Despite being an increase on 2024 levels, this is lower than the 3,613 whole-time equivalent GPs in 2019.
Dr Chris Provan, chairman of the Royal College of GPs in Scotland, said: “GPs are as frustrated as their patients when there are difficulties in accessing a GP appointment. Promises to improve patient access must be meaningful. Emphasis on speed and convenience of access simply risks fragmenting and driving down the quality of care for patients.
"Our concern is that this proposal does not address the major barriers to good access: critical workforce shortages and unmanageable workload. While there has been a modest increase in whole-time equivalent GPs over the past year, Scotland still has fewer GPs today than it did a decade ago. This is the fundamental problem.”
Dr Provan added: "GPs will have serious concerns about the delivery and impact of this proposal, and we will await clarity on the implementation detail. Who will staff these new services and their extended, weekend hours? How will continuity of care be preserved, when patients benefit enormously from knowing and trusting their regular GP? Where will these services be located, when many GP practice premises are not fit for purpose and are waiting for long overdue capital investment?
"The best way to deliver improved patient access and care would be to provide the level of investment needed to overcome the impact of cumulative years of underfunding and the implementation of a long-term workforce strategy to increase the number of GPs.
"Only then can we offer the quality access and continuity of care that patients deserve."
It is understood there will be no single package of services offered by the walk-in clinics, but they will provide a core package of GP services, supported by nurse services. This is likely to include diagnostics, blood tests and referrals onto other parts of the NHS, as is the case with existing GP surgeries.
People would not lose their family GPs, with the clinics being rolled out as additional capacity.
Scottish Labour deputy leader, Jackie Baillie, accused the SNP leader of delivering a “tired, rehashed and hopeless speech” shows that the “knackered SNP are a spent force with nothing to offer Scots”.
She added: "From reheated NHS pledges that he has already failed to deliver, to desperate attempts to smear his opponents, John Swinney's speech was half an hour that the audience will never get back.”
Scottish Conservative leader Russell Findlay said: “John Swinney must believe that scunnered Scots button up the back if he expects them to trust his latest half-baked plan on fixing Scotland’s GP and the wider NHS crisis.
“As he delivered his recycled rhetoric, he appears to have forgotten that he’s been at the heart of this useless SNP government which has left a trail of broken promises for almost two decades.”
Mr Swinney also used his keynote speech in Aberdeen to announce his Government would sponsor care workers stuck in limbo and unable to work, due to UK government changes to immigration policy.
In the year ending June, the number of health and care worker visas issued to migrant workers in caring personal service occupations fell by 88 per cent following restrictions introduced by the UK government to its visa route. The Home Office decision to close the social care visa route altogether will have a further impact on the social care sector.
According to a Scottish Care survey, more than a quarter of the social care workforce in Scotland is made up by international workers – with many sector leaders citing concerns with workforce shortages and recruitment.
The Scottish Government will invest around £600,000 to sponsor “hundreds” of care workers who have visas and are in the country legally, but require sponsorship by an employer. The move comes after care organisations have pulled sponsorship, leaving many care workers unable to take up employment.
Mr Swinney told delegates that “thousands of care workers here in the UK entirely legally have been left high and dry”, and are “unable to work, while care homes are crying out for staff”.
He said: “In what world does that make make any sense? Well delegates, I’ve got a solution. I can announce today that the Scottish Government is going to step in.
“We will sponsor these skilled staff so they can work, pay tax and help keep Scotland’s care homes running. Hundreds of dedicated workers, able to start work immediately. Scotland’s older people must not pay the price for Westminster’s prejudice.”
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