9. Will the First Minister make a statement on what the Welsh Government is doing to improve primary care services in north Wales? OAQ(5)0639(FM)

We continue to work with the health board and other partners to undertake a range of actions to modernise and improve primary care services that are safe and sustainable and as close to people’s homes as possible.

First Minister, you’ll be aware that the British Medical Association was warning, many years ago—in fact, as far back as 2013—that we needed to be training more doctors in Wales, and they were warning of a crisis in general practitioner recruitment. You dismissed those assertions at that time, yet since then we’ve seen over a dozen surgeries across Wales handing in their contracts, saying that they want to terminate contracts—usually because of recruitment problems. The most recent of which is in Colwyn Bay, my own constituency: the second in Colwyn Bay in just six months. This is a big concern to the thousands of people registered with the Rysseldene surgery in my constituency. It is in, at the moment, a purpose-built primary care centre, which it shares with another local surgery, and there are concerns that the withdrawal of the Rysseldene contract may actually put the viability of that new facility at risk.

Can I ask: why didn’t you listen to the BMA when they raised their concerns? Why didn’t you increase sufficiently the number of GP training posts in Wales? You’ve been responsible for the lack of GP training over the years in Wales. You’ve been at the helm—nobody else. You can’t blame the UK Government for this. So, what action are you taking to rescue the situation in my own constituency in Colwyn Bay? And furthermore, what action are you taking to make sure that Wales has sufficient numbers of GPs going forward?

On the first point, what is important is the service that’s provided to those who need it. It doesn’t have to be provided with the same model across the whole of Wales. He will be aware that in Prestatyn two surgeries did the same thing: they handed in their contracts. What was put in place was better than what was there before: a far more comprehensive service run directly by the health board. And I know that the health board is looking to provide a similar service to the people of Colwyn Bay. Understandably, they want to know what the future of the service is, but it doesn’t have to be on the contractor model.

Increasingly, we know that trainee GPs—many of them—are not interested in buying into a practice; they want to be salaried. Some will want to buy into a practice, but increasingly, they come out of university, they don’t want to find the money in order to buy into a practice, and that is an issue that the medical profession itself must look at in terms of what the model should be in the future. The contractor model will still be an important part of GP delivery in the future, but increasingly we are seeing that the younger ones, particularly, want to become salaried and are happy to work for a health board direct.

In terms of recruitment: he will know in October 2016 we launched a new international campaign to promote Wales as a place for doctors to work and train. That national campaign has resulted in a 16 per cent increase in the number of GP training places filled so far, compared to last year. As part of that campaign, an incentive scheme is in place to recruit people to some areas. Trainees who take up a training place in a specified area will receive some financial support, and that is an example of us delivering to make sure that the supply of GPs is at least sufficient in the years to come.