Part of 2. Questions to the Cabinet Secretary for Health and Social Services – in the Senedd at 3:09 pm on 31 January 2018.
I think the Member comes to the point about the future of local healthcare. It goes back to some of the questions that we touched on earlier on. Trying to run the current system that we have is a recipe for failure for the future and there was a very clear message in the review for all of us to take on board.
In this Chamber, we've had a number of conversations about the future of local healthcare and what it will look like. We talked about the fact that GPs were, more and more, working in an integrated team. Many GPs are already doing that and there are other parts of our GP workforce that are still on that journey. And as we learn more about clusters and the debate that we recently had in this Chamber, we'll learn more about what works, and then part of the challenge the parliamentary review has set for us and the Government in particular is: how do we enable that to happen more consistently across the country? How do we spread learning and share learning and have less tolerance of local practice that is not good practice? How do we make the job easier and better for GPs? That's part of what we need to do and access and triage are part of that necessary conversation as well. We'll actually then have a better job for GPs already in the system. But, of course, with 'Train. Work. Live.' we do have some success in getting more trainees to come into our system as well. So, we need to both safeguard those people already in the system and make sure that their job is enjoyable, that it's done in a way that is forward-looking and not stuck in a past that existed and served us well in the last 20 or 30 years, and at the same time make sure that general practice is an attractive career that keeps people in Wales. Of course, there's a broad conversation now to be had with the wider public on the way that GPs themselves are trained.