3. Statement by the Cabinet Secretary for Health and Social Services: Valuing the NHS Workforce

Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 3:24 pm on 6 March 2018.

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Photo of Vaughan Gething Vaughan Gething Labour 3:24, 6 March 2018

Thank you. That's a really helpful point about the appreciation and the value that we do place on the staff, not just at extraordinary times, but, as Dawn Bowden has mentioned, all throughout the year, and the remarkable service that we are privileged to have within this country. I recognise your point about the balance of generalists and specialists to see—[Inaudible.]—about the shape of training in the medical field, but it's a part of what we need to understand and part of the work that Healthcare Inspectorate Wales will be there to understand and help the system to understand as it plans the different levels of staff and the different numbers of staff and how we then expect them to work together.

I'm pleased to hear you recognise the imaging statement of intent. I think you're the only Member to have mentioned that, but it is an important step forward, and it's been worked through with staff in the field as well to have a coherent vision for those staff in the service that we know that we'll need them to deliver. This impacts on a wide range of the national health service.

On the bank arrangements, I recognise there's a challenge for us here, and a real challenge about the rates of pay, how it's organised, how convenient it is, and I think there's a link to e-rostering as well—how we can make it work for staff to undertake shifts that work for them and for the service. There is a piece of work already under way on those areas. So, in the coming months I expect to be able to report back on those for you in any event.

On GP training numbers, you're right—I'm interested in seeing how we go this year, and if we again fill or overfill, we'll then have a different conversation about the infrastructure we have for how many training places we could accommodate, as well as an understanding of how many more people we think we can actually have to undertake GP training numbers here within Wales, and, of course, that conversation about the budget to support those people as well.

I'll finish with the point about paramedics. Again, there'll be comments about the numbers of paramedics we need to train. Paramedics themselves are a highly desirable commodity, and lots of people look to recruit them outside the Welsh system as well. But also the roles—and you're right, the roles are changing, as I recognised in my statement. There's something also about the rotas and how we expect them to work. Because if you take a paramedic out of the emergency ambulance service and you place that paramedic into primary care, if they're there for a long period of time, they may not be able to easily move back into the emergency service, and there's a potential to de-skill them for all parts of their role. There's something about understanding how experienced paramedics, in particular, have a rota and a job description, and a role map that allows them to move into different parts of the service and to continue to add value to those parts of the service. If it's about a regular rotation in different parts of the service, we may well see greater value both in terms of the delivery, but also for that person still feeling valued and having a job that they want to do and not being burned out by one part of it or the other.