Part of 2. Questions to the Minister for Health and Social Services – in the Senedd at 2:58 pm on 6 February 2019.
The characterisation you provide I don't think is entirely fair, but I do recognise the variance in experience between practices, and it's something that comes up regularly in postbags. If you look at the national survey for Wales, it recognises a decline in satisfaction in having access to local healthcare. So, there is a real challenge. It's a challenge that was recognised both by the general practitioners committee of the BMA and the Government and the broader health service as well. It's part of the conversation. It's about contract reform. It's also part of what we're trying to get through in the new model for primary care. When we talk of the new model, it's a recognition that, actually, access is a really important part of that. And it doesn't come because I sat down in my office and decided I believe that 'telephone first' is the way to go; actually, that directly comes from a programme of activity run by GPs themselves and it's driven by those GPs that have resolved the challenges that a range of people complain about and the ability to have an appointment with the right healthcare professional. It is partly about people recognising where they can go if it isn't a general practitioner, but it is also then about being able to talk to someone about the challenge in a reasonable period of time. I recognise that this will continue to be a point of discussion with general practitioners—not just with the Government and the wider health service, but actually between general practitioners themselves, because some GPs are evangelists for a new system of 'telephone first' and others are deeply sceptical and dismissive of it. So, there's a real job of work to persuade GPs that, actually, it's about delivering a better job for them, but ultimately a better service for the public.