General Practitioner Training in North Wales

Part of 2. Questions to the Cabinet Secretary for Health and Social Services – in the Senedd at 2:57 pm on 13 December 2017.

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Photo of Vaughan Gething Vaughan Gething Labour 2:57, 13 December 2017

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.