In Focus: Funding required in Scotland to meet potential

A report about pressures on capacity in Scotland’s general practices has highlighted how optometry services could help if funding was made available for hiring additional workforce.

The Scottish Parliament’s health, social care and sport committee published findings after a consultation took place into how patients accessed primary care.

It explored levels of awareness, effectiveness of signposting between services, use of self-referrals, potential for greater use of alternative pathways, prevalence of self-referrals and the extent to which patients used sources, such as helplines and websites.

The committee said accelerated workforce capacity across primary care was required and until these needs were met, patients would not make use of alternative pathways to primary care and pressure on GPs would continue.