Meeting of the Parliament 23 February 2016
I will add to what I already said to Richard Simpson. The draft budget for 2016-17 shows that we are investing an additional £45 million through the primary care fund, which means that the draft budget headline GP and primary care fund is increasing by 9.9 per cent over the year—a higher percentage than the increase in overall health spending and a higher percentage increase than territorial boards are receiving, so we are investing in primary care.
We will be tackling some of the issues in GP recruitment and retention. That is exactly what the primary care fund is for—to help to overcome some of those issues. It is important that we have a positive vision for primary care, which is why the new model is important, because we want Scotland to become an attractive place for GPs to come to work.
We also want young medical students to choose general practice as their specialty, which is why we are working hard with both the RCGP and the British Medical Association to develop the new model of care, which will put Scotland at the forefront—leading the way with our vision for primary care.