1. Will the First Minister make a statement on what the Welsh Government is doing to improve health services in Pembrokeshire? OAQ(5)0139(FM)

Welsh Government’s priorities are to provide the people of Pembrokeshire with health services that deliver the best possible outcomes for patients.

First Minister, the management of the Goodwick surgery in my constituency has posed great challenges. It has posed challenges in terms of recruitment, and, at times, access for patients has been a very real problem there. Given that your Government’s programme for government commits to continuing to improve access to surgeries, what support can your Government offer a community such as Goodwick in order to find a more stable solution for the local GP surgery?

Well, one of the things that we’re doing, of course, is ensuring that there is a campaign to attract more GPs into Wales—that will be starting next month—and to consider alternative and more sustainable ways for surgeries to work. Of course, it’s the duty of those surgeries to recruit in the first place because they are independent, but there will be support and assistance for them from the health boards so that they can recruit successfully. However, the aim of the Government is to ensure that more and more GPs wish to come to work in Wales.

First Minister, I was delighted to hear on Monday that Hywel Dda Local Health Board has been shortlisted for the highly respected ‘Health Service Journal’ award 2016 in the primary care innovation category for its innovation in community pharmacy triage and treat service, of which there are 17 pharmacies providing that service across Carmarthenshire, Pembrokeshire and Ceredigion, with plans for another nine by the end of this year. It will, and should, play a very important role in reducing A&E attendances in these areas by providing treatment and advice to low-level need, including minor wounds et cetera. And it will, of course, reduce pressures on much needed A&E services. So, I ask you, First Minister: will you join me in congratulating the staff from Hywel Dda that have worked extremely hard at delivering this new, highly successful and innovative service, and wish them well in November?

Yes, I will, of course. It’s very prestigious to have been nominated for this award, and it shows the kind of innovative thinking that we want to see in our health service, that not just benefits the system, but, importantly, benefits patients.

When a health board gets nominated for an award and it’s at a level 2 intervention from the Welsh Government, you have to ask yourself, ‘What’s going wrong?’ The truth is that, in Pembrokeshire, people’s access to primary health care is dangerously affected by the fact that it takes up to two weeks to get an appointment with a doctor, the fact that we don’t have minor injuries units anymore, and Tenby in particular in struggling to provide the kind of primary healthcare services I’m sure he, as the First Minister of Wales wants to see. What further steps is he going to take now to ensure that the health board does actually step in when local GP practices are not recruiting and are not able to provide the services that we expect?

As we’ve done elsewhere in Wales, there’ll be occasions when practices are taken over by the health board, and they will improve the service quite often. Ask the people of Prestatyn—they will tell you that. On other occasions, other practices take over the running of the service, and with great success. I’m surprised that he thinks that the ‘Health Service Journal’ is something that should be ignored or that there’s something wrong with them, because it is the ‘Health Service Journal’ that has been responsible for ensuring that this nomination takes place, and it is a widely read journal. If he thinks that the journal is in some way useless, he can say so. The reality is that this is a very innovative scheme that they have come forward with and it is one to be welcomed. It is a shame he has not welcomed it.

He asked a question particularly about Tenby—[Interruption.] He had his chance to welcome it and failed to do so. He mentioned Tenby—[Interruption.]

He says that he’s not going to welcome something that Hywel Dda has done, and something that’s been recognised elsewhere. As far as Tenby is concerned, he will know that there are plans that are far advanced to make sure that there is a walk-in GP service provided in that town, which will be hugely convenient not just for those who live in the town, but for those who visit it.