5. Will the First Minister provide an update on the Welsh Government's progress in recruiting more GPs? OAQ(5)0120(FM)

Plans to recruit and train additional GPs and other primary healthcare professionals is a priority, and, of course, I’ve gone into it, in some length, in terms of what we’re planning to do across Wales in my answer to question 1.

Thank you, First Minister. There’s understandable concern in Kidwelly, First Minister, about the difficulty in recruiting and retaining GPs in the Minafon surgery, and local Labour councillors have been working hard with the health board to try and inform the community. In fairness to Hywel Dda, they’ve been trying their best to try and recruit a clinical team to the surgery and to bring in locums. I was very pleased to hear that the Welsh Government are planning a recruitment campaign later in the year. It’s essential that the Welsh Government works with health boards and that they’re not left to run their own campaigns in isolation. Would he give us some details about his thoughts on adapting the model that GPs currently have, in building up their own surgeries and buying into them? Because, quite clearly, the needs of modern GPs are more diverse and that seems essential to attracting GPs to places like Kidwelly.

There are. I mean, I understand that two locum GPs have been recruited to replace the two salaried GPs in Kidwelly that handed in their notice, and that service has been resumed. What I notice in many younger GPs is that they’re not interested in buying into a practice. They want to be salaried; they want to have the flexibility. First of all, they haven’t got the money—raising the money to buy into a practice is tricky for them—and also, of course, they want to have the flexibility of being able to move around. The days when GPs went somewhere and stayed there for all their working lives—well, there are fewer and fewer, I suspect, who want to do that. The NHS has to adapt to that reality. It means, for example, that where health boards take over surgeries, in fact, the service is often enhanced as a result of it, and Prestatyn is a good example of that. Where there’s another practice that wishes to take over, that’s facilitated. There have to be a number of different models in the future to make sure that general practice is seen as attractive, rather than the one traditional model that will be attractive to some, but not all.

I last week met with a number of GPs from Anglesey and we discussed how we could encourage more young people to aspire to a career as a GP. I’m sure that the First Minister will share my concern about the reduction of 15 per cent in the number of Welsh-domiciled students who have been applying to study medicine. But, I’m sure he would also support my call, and that of the BMA and others, for the training of more Welsh-domiciled students in Wales. The figures demonstrate that 80 per cent of medical students in Northern Ireland are from Northern Ireland; some 50 per cent of medical students in Scotland are from Scotland; and only some 20 per cent of medical students in Wales are from Wales. Does the First Minister agree with me that we need to change that percentage and that that does have to include an element of quotas?

I think it’s fair to make that point. I would wish to see more young people training in Wales. I have heard anecdotally of people who have been given an offer from a medical school in England but not received one from a medical school in Wales. That is a cause of concern. But, first of all, we must ensure that more and more young people wish to become doctors, and also ensure that there is more of an opportunity for them to train in Wales. I do understand that where you train has a great impact on where you work later on—they go hand in hand.

‘A Planned Primary Care Workforce for Wales’ referenced the emerging role of physicians’ associations and our medical schools as a way of boosting the numbers of GPs in Wales. Given the undeniable crisis of GP provision in Wales, how have you taken this recommendation forward, and what plans do you have in place to increase on just 27 funded places available through our medical schools here in Wales?

First of all, if there’s a crisis in Wales, there’s a crisis across the rest of Britain, because it’s no different here compared to elsewhere. It is difficult and challenging to attract GPs. We know that, which is why a campaign is being launched in October. It’s not simply about opportunity, not simply about flexibility; it’s also about providing, as the Member for Carmarthen West and South Pembrokeshire said, the right environment for their wider family as well. And the statement that the Cabinet Secretary will make will outline in detail how that campaign will proceed.

First Minister, I met last Thursday with Gary Doherty, the chief executive of the Betsi Cadwaladr health board, and he confirmed to me that the biggest challenge that he has in north Wales is the recruitment and retention of doctors, GPs, and also nurses. One of the things that we discussed was the possibility of training Welsh-speaking medical staff in Ysbyty Gwynedd and also attached to Bangor University. Do you agree that this is a good idea, that this would be a way for us to encourage more people to study in Wales and to stay in Wales, but also to help with the dearth, the problem that we have of Welsh-speaking professionals in the health service? Would you be willing to speak with Lord Dafydd Elis-Thomas, who is the chancellor of Bangor University, and also speak with Gary Doherty, who agreed with me that this was a good idea?

Well, we’re open to any suggestions. What’s important, of course, is that any medical school can give the full opportunity of training to a student—this is one issue, of course, that has been raised before: if this can be done in Bangor. It’s not entirely in our hands. The deanery, of course, will have a view on that, as would those responsible for medical training more widely. It’s right to say that it’s a challenge to recruit in all parts of the UK, and what is absolutely crucial at this stage as well is we don’t give the impression that we don’t want doctors and nurses from outside the UK—they are crucial to the health service—often from outside the EU. We know that the market for medics is international; it always will be. You can never train people who will then stay entirely for their working lives in the country where they were trained, so you have to appeal internationally as well and make sure that people feel welcome.