5 days ago
Nearly half of doctors in Scotland witness care failings every week
Almost half of Scotland's doctors witness patient safety being compromised at least once a week, the medical regulator has said.
The General Medical Council (GMC) found that 46 per cent of clinicians north of the border see care failings weekly, a higher proportion than elsewhere in the UK.
Backlogs in accident and emergency departments, resulting in thousands of patients stuck on trolleys for hours queueing for beds, are thought to be one of the issues driving potential errors.
Dr Iain Kennedy, chair of the British Medical Association in Scotland, described the findings as extremely alarming and said that the doctor workforce was operating at 'dangerously low levels'.
The latest GMC survey showed a reduction in the number of doctors noting safety incidents weekly in England, Wales and Northern Ireland since 2023 — but an increase in Scotland.
Its report, published on Thursday, said: 'In 2024, Scotland fared worse than the UK average in some areas — most notably on patient safety.'
Dr Sandesh Gulhane, a GP and health spokesman for the Scottish Conservative Party, said emergency measures such as treating patients in corridors had become routine. He added that staff did not always have access to the life-saving equipment they needed and were more prone to making mistakes because of the pressures, compromising patient safety.
'Nearly two decades of chronic SNP mismanagement has brought our health service to its knees and patients are being put in danger as a result,' he said.
The GMC, which serves to protect the public by ensuring high standards of medical training and practice UK-wide, analyses staff experiences on the frontline of the NHS every year.
Last year 450 doctors in Scotland participated in the survey and a total of 4,700 were involved UK-wide. Asked if they found it difficult to provide sufficient care for a patient at least once a week, 42 per cent in Scotland said they did, compared with 39 per cent in England.
Across the UK 40 per cent of doctors said they had witnessed patient safety or care being compromised at least once a week — 6 per cent less than in Scotland.
Clinicians in Scotland also felt less empowered to bring about improvements with 40 per cent saying they could not influence change, compared with 35 per cent for the UK as a whole. Just 37 per cent felt supported by non-medical managers, while the figure was 42 per cent UK-wide.
Kennedy said: 'BMA Scotland has been warning for some time that doctor workforce provision in Scotland's NHS is at dangerously low levels, which leads to patients having to wait far too long for treatment and doctors who are stretched to breaking point.'
'There is a major question over how waiting lists can be tackled and how any extra capacity in the health service can be delivered when there are not enough consultants to keep up with current demand and while GP practices are struggling to deliver the services their patients deserve. This is a result of the devastating impact of years of underinvestment which has left many GP practices unable to take on more GPs due to a lack of funding.'
He added that it was alarming to see from the survey that 22 per cent of doctors in Scotland were likely to consider moving overseas. This was compared with 27 per cent in the UK as a whole.
Dame Jackie Baillie, a health spokeswoman for Scottish Labour, said: 'There are exceptional staff in our NHS who work diligently to care for patients. They are the ones raising the alarm about patient safety, so this is a wake-up call for the Scottish government who are far too complacent.'
Fiona Hunter, vice-president of the Royal College of Emergency Medicine Scotland, said: 'This survey is a barometer of how clinicians are feeling, and what they are experiencing at work — and it reveals a saddening and shocking reality.
She said the failures were not the fault of the clinicians. 'They are battling in a struggling system, and despite their best efforts, sadly some patients are being put at risk,' she said.
'The Scottish government must listen to the voices of those in this report — and heed the alarm bells so clearly sounding. Our members, their colleagues, and our patients across the country deserve so much better.'
A Scottish government spokesman said: 'Patient safety is paramount and we will ensure any concerns raised by the GMC are fully considered and addressed.
'We want doctors to feel their voices are heard — our Future Medical Workforce project will collect direct feedback from physicians in the coming months to help shape future reforms in training and recruitment and ensure being a doctor is a sustainable and fulfilling career path.'
