Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 2:18 pm on 2 May 2017.
I think we can add payments of Glastir as well to the point that was already being made. I particularly wanted to ask the leader of the house whether she could timetable a debate in Government time on access to primary care services. I think we heard earlier a question from Leanne Wood, the leader of Plaid Cymru, about events in the Rhondda. If I can tell the house that, last week, I and my office spent several hours over two days trying to get a GP for a 90-year-old woman in Carmarthenshire. The listed surgery was in dispute with the health board and wouldn’t take her on. Another surgery wouldn’t deal with it either, despite, in theory, being open to new patients. The only surgery that was offered was at a considerable distance. I am pleased, I hope—touch wood—that that has been resolved, and as an Assembly Member I want to help my constituent. But if it takes the intervention of an Assembly Member to get a GP for a 90-year-old woman, I suggest we have a problem with GPs in Wales: a problem of recruitment, a problem of accessibility, and a problem in the stewardship that your party is showing to the NHS in Wales. So, I think you have made many promises about expanding access to GPs and primary care over the last six years, and I think a debate would allow all Assembly Members of all parties to describe what’s really happening on the ground.