6. Statement by the Minister for Health and Social Services: Update on 'Train. Work. Live.' Campaign

Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 4:56 pm on 2 April 2019.

Alert me about debates like this

Photo of Vaughan Gething Vaughan Gething Labour 4:56, 2 April 2019

On out-of-hours, we've got an out-of-hours reform programme. It's coincided with the roll-out of 111 as well. As we've learnt through the roll-out of 111, we've learnt more about how to support the in-hours as well as the out-of-hours service as well, and so I think in the places where you see 111 staffing, there is a more robust out-of-hours service, and it leads back to your first point about the variety of professionals. People used to refer to out-of-hours as 'GP out-of-hours'. Now, general practitioners are an important part of that team, but, actually, having a range of other professionals, including a nursing professional, including a pharmacist, and, often, I think, we may well see the addition of a mental health practitioner within that as well—so, you'll see that, together with a generalist like a paramedic, being part of a team of different professionals who will be part of that out-of-hours service, and so I do expect that the challenge we see in Wales is reflected across the rest of the UK with out-of-hours services, and that goes back to a previous reform of the GP contract. 

I don't think it's going to be possible, or indeed helpful, to try to say you should force all GPs back into doing out-of-hours as an old contract required them to do. So, I actually think we're building a better service with a that different mix of professionals, and St John's is a good example of the virtual ward—the work that started out in southern Powys, the infamous Brecon virtual ward—and it's a good thing to see that being rolled out, because it is about valuing the contribution of different healthcare professionals and about the fact that it makes the job for those healthcare professionals a more enjoyable one, because they recognise they are providing better care and making better use of their resources. And, crucially, it's really improved team working as well, between general practitioners as well as between the general practitioner and other members of the healthcare team. There's greater appreciation of what other people can do, and that is a positive aspect of coming to work here in Wales, because what I expect is that we will progressively see more and more people describing the way they work in the same way, and it's certainly affected the way people are trained, as well, which is a real positive too.

And, on your point about pharmacists, as I indicated, the campaign will be starting imminently for the pharmacist area. I issued a written statement earlier this week about investing more in pharmacy and looking forward to further discussions with them about their contract, and about the role that they can play and the greater role that pharmacy could and should play in delivering local healthcare. That in itself, I think, will help with the geographic opportunities that exist. A number of doctors have gone out and positively talked about their part of Wales and the opportunity in medicine in where they are, but also the other leisure opportunities that exist in large parts of the country, and that includes the Valleys, just as much as it does north and west Wales too.