On 16 October I was informed by the Aneurin Bevan University Health Board that Gelligaer surgery had made a formal request to close their branch in Gilfach, near Bargoed. That's a surgery that's operated as an outreach surgery from Gelligaer for some time. Over 2,000 patients in Gilfach and Bargoed attend the Gilfach surgery, and if they had to move, they'd either have to move some distance to Gelligaer or to nearby Bryntirion surgery, which is already heavily subscribed.

I'm meeting doctors at the Gelligaer practice on Friday to discuss this. I'm also preparing a letter with constituents to write to the health board to make the case to keep the practice in Gilfach open. We need more accessible GP services and there's an urgent need to recruit GPs, particularly to train them and for them to work and live in the northern Valleys in communities like Bargoed and Gilfach, where I'm from. What has the Welsh Government and particularly the health Minister done to achieve that aim of training and recruiting GPs and moving them to live and work in those northern Valleys areas?