Part of 1. Questions to the First Minister – in the Senedd at 1:30 pm on 1 May 2018.
Thank you very much indeed. Well, in 2014, the chair of the north Wales local medical committee wrote to Members calling for urgent action to tackle a growing crisis unfolding in general practice. In 2016, the vice-chair of the north Wales local medical committee wrote to Members saying that they were very aware of how precarious general practice is in north Wales, with some areas, such as Wrexham, at risk of losing more surgeries in the very near future. And, of course, Gresford is now under threat. Last week, new Welsh Government figures showed the number of registered GPs working in Wales at its lowest level since 2013, with 83 fewer in 2016 and 2017, with just over half of the GP practitioners leaving the workforce rejoining as locums. How, therefore, do you as a Government respond to the reasons given to me by some locum GPs in north Wales two and a half weeks ago for not working in Wales as being: more affordable medical defence cover for locums doing sessions in England than in Wales, on top of the separate performance list issue; extra bureaucracy when dealing with pension contributions; the curtailment of training links with north Wales medical schools; the 'stress and danger' of working in the Welsh system; and different and inferior IT systems, et cetera, et cetera?