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The Citizen Participation and Public Petitions Team
Under consideration PE2125: End the pause on new NHS building projects and prioritise capital funding for primary care buildings
Calling on the Scottish Parliament to urge the Scottish Government to restart overdue work on NHS Scotland buildings, and prioritise funding for primary care building projects to ensure community health teams have the physical spaces and renovations required to treat their patients efficiently and safely.
Background information
Funding for general practice has always been too low for service provision and currently sits at 8% of the total NHS Scotland budget, while accounting for approximately 80% of the work done in healthcare provision.
The impact of poor funding is multifaceted and adversely affects areas of socio-economic deprivation, like Drumchapel, as well as highland and rural areas. This causes widening health inequalities and poorer health outcomes for communities.
Many primary care buildings are well overdue renovation or complete replacement throughout the country, and often hospital buildings get preference for capital funding.
Improving the building stock of general practice, by ensuring enough treatment rooms that meet health and safety and infection control requirements, will significantly improve appointment availability. Better community health, as well as having a positive impact on presentations to emergency departments, is much easier to achieve as a result.
607 signatures
This petition is now under consideration
Click here for further information about the consideration of this petition.