1. Will the First Minister provide an update on what the Welsh Government is doing to assist with the GP crisis in Mid and West Wales? OAQ(5)0137(FM)

He uses the word ‘crisis’, but we have increased investment and are modernising services through our primary care plan. We are working closely with health boards who are responsible for providing services for their populations and who are responsible for ensuring continuity of high-quality care when an independent general practice hands back its business contracts.

I’m grateful to the First Minister for that reply, but, as he knows, fine words butter no parsnips, and, for the people of Dwyfor Meirionnydd, I don’t think that they will derive much consolation from what he said. As he’s aware, a surgery in Porthmadog that served 7,500 people recently announced that it would see only those who are acutely unwell. In Blaenau Ffestiniog, a practice of four doctors has now been reduced to one, with a handful of locums, and, often, there’s nobody available. Over half the GPs in Dwyfor are over 55. Is it not time for the Government to actually get its act together and make the health service fit for the people of Wales in the area of Dwyfor Meirionnydd?

These are independent contractors and they are entitled, of course, to seek help from the local health boards. And, indeed, where those contractors have decided that they no longer wish to provide that service, the health boards across Wales have taken over and provided an equally good, if not better service, as the people of Prestatyn will explain to the Member. But, yes, we know that there are difficulties in recruiting GPs; it’s not an issue that’s confined to Wales. It happens in England, in Northern Ireland and Scotland for that matter as well. We are looking to launch a GP recruitment campaign next month in order to make sure that we can, once again, portray Wales as a good place to be a doctor, and, of course, that we can provide the flexibility that the profession now needs, moving not necessarily towards the independent contractor model as the default model, but to look at other models as well.

I was also busy meeting health forums in the summer, First Minister, and I did ask a question last July, where you quite clearly answered me in regard to the Dulais valley that you’re bringing forward very shortly proposals for a national and an international campaign to market Wales and the NHS as an attractive place to work, and that that work would include recruitment, training and retention of GPs. Could I ask you therefore, First Minister, whether there is progress that has been taken forward through the summer?

Yes, I can confirm that, next month, we will be launching a national and international marketing campaign to highlight Wales as a great place to train, work and live, and the Secretary will be outlining the campaign in his statement next week. It will be a step change in the way we market Wales to aid doctor and GP recruitment.

The communities of Porthmadog, Newtown, Cardigan, Tenby, Pembroke and Pembroke Dock, which have to wait a fortnight these days for an appointment with a GP, do feel that there is a crisis and they feel that there is a problem of recruitment and a shortage of GPs who are willing to stay in those areas. There are particular problems in terms of those who want to become partners in surgeries. So, what can the Government do in addition to recruit GPs, and what is the future of the private surgery as part of the health service in primary care?

When he mentions private surgeries, I’m not sure whether he’s referring to a private practice or—

They are currently private.

[Continues.]—independent contractors.

The independent contractors.

That, of course, is the current model, and, for some, it will be the future model. But it doesn’t mean that it is the sole model that you can have as regards GPs, because more and more GPs want to be salaried. They wish to have the opportunity to move from one practice to another, and that, of course, is something that the profession has to deal with. We are working with the royal college and the British Medical Association in order to ensure that the campaign that we will launch next week will be the most effective possible. And, of course, we expect the health boards to work with GPs, because, when problems are highlighted, we must ensure that doctors come in as locums, if that is what needs to happen temporarily, in order to secure a sustainable future for surgeries. Of course, the crux of the matter is to ensure that more and more doctors wish to work in Wales and also to ensure that there are plenty models available for them to work in Wales.

First Minister, given that we now have three health boards that have had targeted intervention, and one health board in special measures, this drive to recruit GPs has to talk about recruiting the whole family, because, otherwise, these GPs will not want to work in areas where they feel that there is not going to be substantial back-up, medically, for them in their practices. And we need to make sure that these GPs who want to come to Wales—and you’re right that it’s a great place to live and work—want to bring their families; they want to bring their spouses, their partners, their children, they want them to have good schools to go to, and they want to have good jobs that their partners, their spouses, can also undertake. So, it’s not just one person we’re recruiting, but an entire family, and if we can get that family over the border, we can keep them, but we’ve got to give them that whole package. So, when you look at this retention programme and recruitment programme, will you please bear that in mind, and bear in mind that all these GP practices, whether they’re health board driven or individual private members, will be looking to their hospitals and to the local NHS for the service they need to back up their support for their patients? And, with four out of eight in some kind of trouble, it’s not good news.

What we do know is we don’t have a funding crisis in acute hospitals, as England does, or a doctors strike. But she does make a very important point, if I may, with respect to the Member, in the sense that it is absolutely right that we have to target the family. Many years ago, GPs would come to an area, and, quite often, they had a spouse who wasn’t working. That’s no longer the case. So, being able to provide opportunities for a partner and a good environment for children is important, and that will be very much part of the campaign that we’re launching in October.