Part of 1. 1. Questions to the First Minister – in the Senedd at 1:35 pm on 13 September 2016.
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.