A flurry of retiring doctors is set to compound a “perfect storm” of falling GP numbers and rising patient lists across Tayside and Fife.
The area is down 16 family doctors on last year as hundreds of new patients sign up to surgeries, Scottish Government figures show.
The GP crisis is being made worse by Scotland’s ageing population, which places a greater demand on practices.
And a British Medical Association survey revealed that more than a third of GPs plan to retire in the next five years.
Scottish Labour’s health spokesman Anas Sarwar said: “We are looking at a demographic time-bomb for family doctors in Scotland. The SNP needs to wake up and deal with this crisis urgently.”
Tavish Scott, for the Scottish Liberal Democrats, said GPs are over-stretched “as a direct result of the perfect storm of recruitment and retention problems that the SNP Government has allowed to arise”.
There are 628 GPs in Tayside and Fife, compared with 644 last year. That is down on 632 when the SNP came to power in 2007 and when the demands on primary care were not as high.
An extra 399 patients have registered at surgeries across Tayside and Fife since last year, bringing the total to 26,403. That compares with 24,414 in 2007.
The Scottish Conservatives said the number of elderly patients on GP surgeries’ books has passed the one million mark for the first time.
Donald Cameron, the party’s health spokesman, said people living longer is to be welcomed, but practices must be “properly equipped to cope”.
“Under the SNP, that simply hasn’t happened with general practice,” he added.
Earlier, a survey by BMA Scotland revealed that 35% of GPs plan to retire in the next five years.
Dr Alan McDevitt, chairman of the BMA’s Scottish GP committee, said: “If we do not ensure that general practice receives direct support and funding to make it an attractive career option for doctors, we could soon be in a situation where we do not have enough GPs to deliver effective care to patients.”
Shona Robison, the Health Secretary, said the Scottish Government is “working closely with the BMA to deliver a new vision for general practice and primary care which will help address the workload challenges facing Scotland’s GPs”.
She added: “That is why by the end of this Parliament we will increase spending on primary care services to 11% of the frontline NHS budget, delivering an extra £0.5 billion and building a genuine community health service with general practice at its heart.
“In terms of investment in GP services, we’ve seen that increase in cash terms each year under this Government, rising by £175 million from £704.6 million in 2007-08 to £879.9 million in 2015-16.
“That’s a cumulative increase of £920 million under the SNP to 2015-16.”