Junior doctors are to be offered extra cash incentives to take up positions in hard-to-recruit areas of Tayside and Fife.
The Scottish Government unveiled a recruitment drive for 100 new GP training places in Scotland.
Responding to a GP staffing crisis in some parts of Scotland, 37 of these posts will carry a £20,000 incentive for trainees.
Problems recruiting GPs to the north of Angus in the past 12 months have led to services being affected.
NHS Tayside took over Brechin Health Centre in October and closed the GP ward at the town’s infirmary to bolster cover.
But the board pulled the plug on open sessions due to a further decline in numbers and a lack of locum cover.
Four of the posts that will receive the £20,000 bonus will cover the east of Scotland, in patch that will include Stracathro Hospital in Angus, Perth Royal Infirmary and Ninewells Hospital in Dundee.
Leven will also benefit from the scheme.
Health Secretary Shona Robison said: “General practice is the heart of our NHS, and is becoming ever more important as we build the community health service of the future.
“That is why we are investing to recruit more junior doctors into GP training posts – with 100 extra places advertised this year to help build the primary care workforce of the future.
“However, we know there are some parts of the country that have challenges recruiting – mainly because of their geographical location. So we’re offering a financial incentive with certain posts to fill these vital training places.
“We are also investing in the future of the profession – developing new ways of working with multi-disciplinary teams and refocusing the role of the GP as the expert medical generalist within our community health service.”
The Scottish Government and NHS Education Scotland drive aims to highlight the benefits of living and working as a GP in Scotland.
A series of adverts and a social media campaign will run to raise awareness of the opportunities that medical training in Scotland provides.
These 100 new places bring the total number of GP specialist training posts advertised this year to 439, following a recruitment round earlier in the year.
However Liberal Democrat MSP Alex Cole-Hamilton said the scheme wouldn’t be a “silver bullet”.
He said: “Even if the bursaries announced today are all taken up, we will still not have closed the gap between the number of GP training places available and the number of doctors choosing to go into primary care.
“This scheme has the potential to make a difference for more rural areas where there are particular recruitment challenges. But make no mistake, further action is required if we are to get to grips with Scotland’s GP crisis. We need a long term solution to this problem.”
