Training posts for GPs are to rise by a third next year, going from 300 to 400, First Minister Nicola Sturgeon has announced.
The SNP leader said the rise was "partly to meet a growing demand for services" and also because more GPs are opting to work part-time instead of full-time.
The specialist GP training posts are open to those who have done at least seven years of medical school as well as foundation training.
The Scottish Government hopes the move will result in a "more sustainable" GP workforce by 2019.
Ms Sturgeon also confirmed a scheme that encourages former GPs back into work is to be expanded as part of efforts to integrate health and social care.
The First Minister announced the measures ahead of delivering the inaugural Health and Social care Alliance lecture in Edinburgh.
She said: "Currently we offer approximately 300 specialist GP training posts each year. People take up those posts after they've already done at least seven years of medical school and foundation training.
"We know that we'll need more students in the future. That's partly to meet a growing demand for services and partly because of changing working patterns. People who graduate are increasingly likely to become part-time GPs rather than full-time ones.
"We're already doing more to encourage people to choose GP training - for example by increasing medical students' exposure to primary care when they are undergraduates.
"I can confirm today a further important step. We are increasing the number of training places for GPs by 33% - from 300 to 400.
"That change will take place next year, meaning that from 2019 onwards, we will begin to see additional GPs in the community."
Ms Sturgeon also said: "We know that in the last five years more than 250 people under the age of 50 have stopped being a GP. Often that will be for personal reasons - for example if they become parents, or carers themselves.
"Many of those GPs will become able to return to practice after a few years. So, we will invest in a programme to increase the effectiveness of our existing GP returners' scheme.
"After all, training a GP costs approximately £500,000. It makes overwhelming sense to encourage people who have already been trained, and already have experience, back into practice."
She stressed the importance of family doctors, saying "effective primary care services will be crucial to the success of integration" of health and social care services.
"That means that GPs should be at the heart of teams who will be able to meet a wide range of health needs," the First Minister stated.
"The future model of primary care is community health hubs - multi-disciplinary teams of psychiatrists, paediatricians, pharmacists and other specialists as well as social care working with GPs to meet the needs of their communities. We are committed to expanding this model across the country as part of our transformation of primary care.
"That's why in June we provided an additional £60 million for transforming primary care - £20 million of that allows GPs to trial new ways of working, so that we can learn from successful initiatives in different parts of the country.
"We have also allocated £16 million to recruit 140 pharmacists who can work directly with GPs. It means that pharmacists with advanced clinical skills can support the care of patients with long term conditions - something which benefits those patients, while enabling GPs to spend more time with their other patients."
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article