I would like to call for an urgent Welsh Government statement on GP services in Wales. Although the COVID pandemic has shone a light on these, warnings to the Welsh Government of a GP crisis in Wales long predate this. In 2012, both BMA Cymru and the Royal College of General Practitioners relaunched campaigns warning that Wales faced a GP crisis, that 90 per cent of patient contacts were with general practice and yet funding as a share of the NHS cake had fallen, and that they had relaunched their campaigns because the Welsh Government didn't listen.

At a 2014 BMA Cymru briefing in the Assembly, the chair of the north Wales local medical committee said general practice in north Wales was in crisis, several practices had been unable to fill vacancies, and many GPs were seriously considering retirement because of the currently expanding workload. Jump forward and, last Thursday, the north Wales community health council said that people were facing a crisis of access to GPs. The chair of the Welsh GPs committee at the BMA, representing doctors, said problems were developing before COVID, with more GPs being lost to early retirement. I call for an urgent statement accordingly.