Part of 2. 2. Questions to the Cabinet Secretary for Health, Well-being and Sport – in the Senedd at 3:05 pm on 29 March 2017.
It’s a regular cause of comment and discussion with the profession and with partners around it. Of course, I was recently at the Health, Social Care and Sport Committee’s inquiry, giving evidence about doctor recruitment. I’m looking forward to providing figures on filling our training places for GPs in the next few weeks, and I do think that the ‘Train. Work. Live’ campaign has had a really positive impact. We’ll also know more about that—not just about the social media profile it’s had, but actually with actually filling those places as well. But there will always be a challenge in actually remodelling primary care and understanding, where those centres currently are now, should they still be the places where we recruit and deliver the service to in the future, So, it is part of that wider conversation on reshaping and reforming primary care.
I’ll say it again: the conversations we have with the British Medical Association, with the Royal College of General Practitioners, but other professionals as well, are really important in doing that. This isn’t a process of imposition. It’s a process of conversation, partnership and learning on what already works. That’s why the visit that I had to the Neath Pacesetter with both Jeremy Miles and David Rees was particularly important to see how some GPs are already living up to and changing the way they deliver care, with a wider range of care being available. Actually, for GPs themselves, they think it’s a better way for them to work and a better way for their patients to access the service.