4. Will the Cabinet Secretary make a statement on GP training in North Wales? OAQ51480

Thank you for the question. We are committed to increasing GP trainees across Wales, including in north Wales. Our targeted incentives have made a difference, with more than 100 per cent of posts being filled in most GP training schemes across north Wales. We continue to work with others to identify additional steps that could assist.

I listened with interest to the answers that you gave to Rhun ap Iorwerth earlier, but we do know that only 3.5 per cent of trainee doctors in the UK are in Wales, although we have 5 per cent of the population and, I would argue, that our health needs are greater than that. I just don’t feel feel that the Government fully understands the level of the problem that we have in north Wales. The number of trainee GPs in north Wales is around two for every 100,000 of the population. In Cardiff, it's around six to every 100,000 of the population, and this is rehearsed year on year, with the situation at its worst now in north Wales. So, may I ask: when will the Government truly recognise the specific needs of north Wales in this context in order to resolve this problem once and for all?   

I'm happy to respond about where we are this year and the approach that we'll take to future rounds of GP training places. As ever, we'll look at the right number of places, about what we want and what we think we can reasonably fill. I said at the start of the year's round that we've just completed that if we're able to overfill, then I'd be happy to do so, and that's exactly what we did. That includes north Wales: we had 24 places offered but we actually appointed 25 candidates across the three areas of north Wales where training takes place. That shows that we've been good to our word.

As we go through this year, and going back to a previous question from one of your party colleagues about the way in which we announced doctor training numbers, in particular GPs, we'll make announcements on the number of people and where they'll be, in a completely transparent manner, because there is no one part of Wales where you could say there is no challenge in this area. And it's got to be the honesty about recognising this is a difficult and challenging area for every part of the UK, and what we are seeking to do in Wales is having the right number of people and making sure that we fill those places. It's about high-quality training and also to keep people to work in our healthcare system here Wales—in north Wales, south, mid and west Wales—every part of the country has a challenge for this Government to address.  

I always find that it's easy in opposition to come up with solutions, but when you're in Government you have to make decisions, and the decision here is about where the health workforce sits within its community and different parts of the country. In that regard, I welcome the progress that's being made by our 'Train.Work.Live' campaign and the recent investment to increase the number of nurses, physiotherapists and occupational health visitors. I ask you, Cabinet Secretary, if you'd agree with me that we do need—and I accept that—to train more doctors, but that to play their part in a more important, multidisciplinary workforce, we need to treat people closer to home, and that they are but one element in a given whole?  

Yes, you're absolutely right, Joyce: we need to make sure that we have the right number of GPs, as really important leaders within local healthcare, but, equally, they're taking part in a wider multidisciplinary team to deliver care. Recently, at the national primary care conference I was really heartened by GP leaders but also other healthcare professionals who recognised that it was the right thing for them to do. And we need to support them, both in the way that we design and deliver our training of workforce numbers, so the £12 million increase that I announced recently to train other healthcare professionals, and for them to be trained and work together with GP colleagues as part of that team. And, actually, it's about delivering better care, and better care that, actually, all of those healthcare professionals—GPs and others—would rather work in as well. There's a challenge because not everyone is at that point in time, but most people recognise it's better for the staff and better for the citizen as well. We get better value from it and, ultimately, better care as well. So, that will be a consistent theme in this Government, and I won't apologise for talking about GPs and others as part of a wider care team, and I'm not going to split off one group of healthcare professionals against another.  

Can you tell us what work is being done to ensure that GP training takes into account the fantastic opportunities that new technology provides for GP services in the future? You'll be aware, I'm sure, that there are applications now that people can download, even onto their mobile phones, in order to have consultations with a GP, and we need to be at the cutting edge of this. I'm sure you will agree with that statement. So, what specifically is within the current training offer to make sure that these are the sorts of things in the future that GPs will be able to use? 

The current framework isn't just about doctors and training; it's also about the continued professional development and training that takes place through the profession. For example, I announced at the recent medicine safety conference with the Royal Pharmaceutical Society in Wales that we'll have a roll-out of a trial of pharmacists having fuller access to the GP record, and if that's successful that will then be rolled out to other pharmacies who are part of the Choose Pharmacy network in the spring of next year. There will need to be training and understanding of what that means both for the pharmacist but also for GPs themselves as well.

To be fair, both the Royal College of General Practitioners and the general practice committee of the British Medical Association are fully engaged in a conversation about how to make better use of information technology. I'm actually meeting the medical director of NHS Wales Informatics Service later on this afternoon, to talk exactly about what we already do and what our ambitions need to be for the future. So, it isn't one simple part of understanding the opportunities that exist to work in a different way, it's actually about how we do that on a more successive basis and expecting GPs and others to be able to adapt to do that as well. There's lots of opportunity, but our biggest challenge in many ways is how the health service catches up with the expectation of how people already live their lives today. We're not where we need to be; there's more progress to make up, but I'm optimistic about where we'll actually get in the next few years.