article: NHS boards said 42 practices were now under their control - a measure used in special circumstances and emergencies. Scottish Labour called it a "crisis" and claimed the number of patients registered at an "understaffed" GP practice was at least two million. The Scottish government said there was no crisis in healthcare. Public Health minister Maureen Watt said another Â£50m would be spent on primary care to ensure patients get the service they deserve. Most of Scotland's 987 General Practices are owned and run by GP partners. However, some surgeries have previously been run by health boards rather than GP partners, often because they were situated in rural areas such as the Highlands, where they might otherwise have struggled to attract an independent practice run by GPs. But in recent years, health boards have also had to step in in urban areas as an emergency measure to ensure patients continued to have access to a GP, after practices lost a number of doctors within a short space of time. This has happened at Bannockburn and Kersiebank medical practices in NHS Forth Valley, Brimmond medical practice in NHS Grampian, as well as Bangholm and Kirkliston surgeries within NHS Lothian. Leith Links in Edinburgh will also be taken over next month. Dr Carey Lunan, from the Royal College of General Practitioners, said: "In Edinburgh, where I work, a number of surgeries have had to close their lists. "When that happens it means the burden falls to the remaining practices in that area, to register patients. "The knock-on effect for patients is that they might find it difficult to register with the practice that is nearest to them. "They might have to wait longer to see a GP. It's not unusual for me to hear that patients have to wait two or three weeks for a routine appointment. "Patients might also not be able to see the same GP, so that's not great for continuity of care." Dr Lunan added: "There are problems encouraging GPs into the profession, problems retaining GPs in the profession, and that's having a knock-on effect on workload and the quality of care that we can provide and our ability to develop services. "The resourcing makes it very difficult for it to be an attractive career option for people coming in. "One in eight training posts, from the 2014 figures, were unfilled. That's very different from how it was a few years ago when it was very difficult to get into General Practice training. It was very competitive." Citizens Advice Scotland (CAS) said it has been approached by people who had faced problems accessing GP services because of high demand. Christine Lang, national co-ordinator of CAS's Patient Advice and Support Service, said: "We had a case where there was a client who signed up with a new GP surgery and misread the time of the appointment. "She was told that because she missed the appointment she wouldn't be able to use the service at all. "We helped her to raise a complaint, and the GP practice explained they had a policy,
summary: BBC Scotland research has shown that difficulties with GP recruitment have led to more doctors' surgeries being taken over by health boards.