title: Expanded emergency medical services for the provision of primary care in remote rural areas.
abstract: It is now widely recognised that a potential recruitment crisis is looming in the provision of primary care physicians for remote rural areas of the United Kingdom. Anecdotal evidence suggests that rural registrar, associate and principal vacancies are becoming increasingly difficult to fill and for many rural GPs locums are an impossible dream. Many practitioners are no longer prepared to work in areas where out-of-hours cooperatives are not available. We are now faced with the very real possibility that in some remote areas of the Scottish Highlands and Islands the recruitment of suitable GPs may no longer be possible. So what are the alternatives? In October 1999 I visited a community in the mountains of northern New Mexico which has had to deal with this very problem.
authors.affiliation: Portree Medical Centre, Portree, Skye.
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Mccabe
mesh_terms: D004632:Emergency Medical Services / Q000458:organization & administration*; D006297:Health Services Accessibility; D006801:Humans; D009516:New Mexico; D011320:Primary Health Care / Q000458:organization & administration*; D011365:Professional Practice Location; D019035:Rural Health Services / Q000458:organization & administration*; D012606:Scotland; D006113:United Kingdom; D000078329:Workforce