FAMILY doctors are “running on empty” as workloads balloon and practices dwindle, the British Medical Association (BMA) warned today.

The union made the claim after a survey of 1,021 GPs showed clinicians citing the concern, alongside an inability to meet patients’ needs within available resources, as the worst aspects of their job.

In his final speech to the Scottish Local Medical Committee  conference, Scottish BMA’s GP committee chairman Dr Andrew Buist warned the service was suffering a “lingering death.”