£15 Million for Lanarkshire GPs – But Are Surgeries Using It Properly

In East Kilbride and across Lanarkshire, GP surgeries are being told they could each receive approximately a quarter of a million pounds this year, as part of a £15 million workforce funding package announced by MSP Collette Stevenson. The funding forms part of a broader Scottish Government commitment of more than £531 million over the next three years to shore up general practice services in Scotland.

The headline sounds promising: money for recruitment, for stabilising staffing, for improving patient access. But behind the announcement lies a far more troubling picture. Whistleblowers speaking to The Community Impact Project warn that while cash is arriving, the system it is intended to rescue remains in deep peril—and the failings they describe point directly to years of mis‑management under the Scottish National Party (SNP) government.

Understanding how a GP surgery works helps place the significance of the funding. A typical practice has to manage staff salaries (doctors, nurses, administrative and support staff), the running costs of buildings, utilities, IT systems and medical supplies, and the recruitment and retention of clinical staff. When practices cannot fill permanent posts, they resort to locums—temporary doctors who are more expensive and provide less continuity for patients. When fewer doctors are willing to become partners (owners/managers) of practices due to increased risk, workload and lower pay, the system becomes more fragile. So an extra £250,000 might look generous, but it must cover staffing gaps, potentially reduce reliance on locums, and improve operations—all in a system already under sustained pressure.

Yet the whistleblowers say many practices are struggling simply to access the funding. They report confusion over reporting requirements (workforce data submissions via official NHS apps), delays, bounce‑back emails ending up in junk folders, and a fear that practices that miss deadlines risk losing the funding. One source told us, “Money is only a temporary patch. Unless the system itself is reformed—workforce planning, patient pathways, digital systems—GP services will continue to struggle.”

When viewed through the lens of wider NHS failings in Scotland, the concern is justified. Independent audit and parliamentary reports show that waiting lists have grown to unprecedented levels: more than one in six Scots are now on NHS waiting lists, numbers have doubled since the pandemic, and thousands have waited more than a year. In A&E departments, the number of patients waiting over 12 hours has soared: one analysis found more than 76,000 people waited more than half a day in 2024, compared with hundreds a decade earlier. In mental health, the longest waits for child and adolescent services reached years in some board areas. A parliamentary motion noted that the flagship national treatment centres promised by the SNP have repeatedly been delayed or cancelled. Infrastructure backlogs have exploded: NHS Scotland’s estate has maintenance liabilities topping £1.3 billion.

These are not just bad statistics. They are symptoms of deeper structural failures: the SNP government has repeatedly promised increase in GP numbers, reduction of waiting lists, digital transformation, and joined‑up health and social care. Many of those promises remain unfulfilled. According to the Institute for Fiscal Studies and Audit Scotland, despite rising spending on the NHS, in real terms the health budget has fallen since 2008/09 and key performance standards have deteriorated in seven of nine major areas. The SNP’s recovery plan for health services has been described as “flimsy” and “not worth the paper it was written on”.

So when the funding announcement arrives in Lanarkshire, the big question is: will it make a difference—or will it simply prop up a system that remains broken? If a practice uses its £250,000 wisely to recruit a permanent GP, reduce its locum spend, improve continuity of care and modernise its IT systems, then the money could be transformational. But if the funding is swallowed up by ongoing reliance on temporary staff, archaic processes, and still‑failing infrastructure, then patients will see little tangible benefit.

At a strategic level, the Scottish Government needs to go beyond cash injections. It must tackle how it plans the workforce, how it incentivises and supports GP partners, how it upgrades digital systems, and how it ensures reporting and accountability work for practices rather than against them. The failure to do so means that while money is arriving, the system remains vulnerable—and the consequences spill over into hospitals and A&E departments where pressure continues to mount.

For the people of East Kilbride and Lanarkshire, the stakes are high. The announcement is a welcome sign. But the delivery will matter more. If GP services do not stabilise, the vulnerable will wait longer, more people will end up in hospital, and the extra funding may be viewed not as a turning point but as a temporary fix.

Readers are invited to contact us at contact@thecommunityimpact.co.uk if they wish to confidentially discuss the issues raised in this article. You can always comment below.