NHS Tayside spent over half-a-million pounds on temporary doctors last year.
The health board forked out a total of £580,000 with more than half that amount going on expensive agency locum GPs.
The figure compares to £430,000 in 2019-2020.
The spending was revealed in a Freedom of Information request by North East Tory MSP, Maurice Golden.
It was also revealed that at least one locum GP was paid a staggering £171.80 per hour when they were hired in 2019-20.
Last year’s hourly peak for a locum GP was £90 per hour.
Five GP practices across Tayside are currently run by the health board.
That includes Whitfield, Maryfield and Lochee practices in Dundee, and Brechin and Abbey practices in Angus.
In the past three years, NHS Tayside has spent £1.35 million on locum GPs.
Mr Golden said: “Some of the costs involved here are eye-watering and patients are losing out by not being able to build a relationship with a local GP.
“NHS Tayside is strapped for cash and the need to find hundreds of thousands each year for stop-gap GPs is only making things worse.
“The responsibility for this must lie with the Scottish Government.
“The SNP has been in sole charge of health for almost 15 years but simply hasn’t prepared well enough for the future.
“Not enough doctors have been trained and an ageing population has not been accounted for.
“We need to see an urgent plan for how GP vacancies can be filled and the valued role of a consistent and sustainable local doctor restored.”
A spokesperson for NHS Tayside said the board was doing everything it could to hire new GPs.
They said: “All Boards across Scotland are facing a national shortage of GPs and NHS Tayside is no exception.
“However, we are taking steps to recruit and retain GPs and look at different ways of delivering care out in our communities.
“Within Scotland, the 2018 GP contract has introduced additional services such as mental health workers, social prescribers, pharmacists and physiotherapists to assist practices in delivering more comprehensive services to patients.
“NHS Tayside has a responsibility to ensure that safe primary care services are provided for all patients and on occasion that may require the use of locum doctors in practices that NHS Tayside runs directly.”
And they added: “Locum doctors are an important part of our healthcare resource and are particularly useful in covering short term absence.
“They are however only part of what is required to have an effective and sustainable general practice.
“We continue to invest in advanced nurse, allied health professional and permanent GP posts to stabilise and improve the healthcare delivered in the practices that we run.”
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