Access to GPs

Part of 1. Questions to the First Minister – in the Senedd at 1:32 pm on 29 November 2022.

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Photo of Mark Drakeford Mark Drakeford Labour 1:32, 29 November 2022

Well, Llywydd, on the latter point, there are 200 places available in Wales for GP trainees. We don't always get to 200, but we consistently attract more than the 160, which is the baseline figure for GP training. The long-term answer, however, is to move away from the single focus on GPs themselves. GPs are leaders of a wider clinical team that works alongside them. And the history over the last decade in Wales has been a successful move to recruit more front-line clinicians in physiotherapy, in pharmacy, through paramedics who practise in primary care, and, of course, advanced practice nurses as well. And the long-term health of primary care does rely on not regarding an appointment with the doctor as the only way in which primary care can be delivered. 

I'm sure the Porthcawl medical practice works very hard indeed. They will be glad to know that, in the negotiations with the general practitioners committee Wales, we have been reducing the amount of repetitive reporting that GPs sometimes are asked to carry out, usually for the purposes of monitoring important clinical conditions. But we can do that in better and smarter ways, and release clinicians' time into doing the things that only they are able to do.