6. Will the Minister provide an update on the number of GPs in Wales? OQ59223

Statistics about the GP workforce are published on StatsWales. The latest snapshot, on 30 June, shows that there were 2,301 fully qualified GPs, which represents a full-time equivalent of 1,562. This includes partners, providers, salaried physicians, retainers and active locums.

I thank the Minister for that response. I held a public meeting in Tywyn a month ago to discuss the significant problems that people in that area are having because of the shortage of health services there. Pendre hall was full to overflowing, which is testament to the strong feelings in the area. The area did have excellent health provision up until around four years ago. Now they've gone from having four GPs working in partnership to having a surgery managed by the health board with only half a full-time equivalent GP. The rest of south Meirionnydd faces a similar future, with a number of GPs about to retire. If we're not careful, there's a real risk that there will be only two full-time GPs for the whole of south Meirionnydd. Indeed, around a quarter of all Welsh GPs are over 60 and are approaching retirement. We need at least another three GPs in the Dysynni valley and Tywyn, and more for the rest of Meirionnydd. I first of all want to invite the Minister to visit Tywyn, which is, of course, in her region, and then ask her whether she will work with the health board to develop an effective recruitment plan as a matter of urgency in order to attract GPs to the Dysynni valley and Meirionnydd. Thank you.

Thank you. Of course, we do hope that things like developing the medical school in north Wales will help and, of course, there will be an opportunity for people to do their practical work in places like Tywyn. And it's good to see that there's been a significant increase in the number of medical undergraduates in Wales. Forty-seven per cent of people studying in Wales now live in Wales, and 55 per cent to 60 per cent of those stay in Wales. So, we've seen a big change recently, and I think that's very encouraging. But, we then have to think about where people want to go to practise, and we have to ensure that we put teams around them. We have a similar situation in Solva, near to where I live—exactly the same kind of situation—but what we need to do then is to ensure that people can work in teams, where that's appropriate. But, at the end of the day, you have to have GPs who are qualified to do that work. It's important that people understand that it is possible for them to see other people, but, of course, ultimately, you do need a GP if you need that specific medical help that only a GP can provide.

Minister, there's no doubt we're facing a crisis in primary care, with one in five GP practices closing in the last 10 years. On the face of it, there seems to have been an increase in GPs during that time, but it's clear that practices are finding it hard to recruit GPs and therefore being forced to close. Furthermore, a Royal College of General Practitioners survey last year found that a third of GPs in Wales did not expect to still be in the profession in five years' time. The most recent annual Welsh Government data on full-time equivalent GPs showed that just half of GPs are indeed full time. In Swansea Bay University Health Board, a staggering 40 per cent of GPs are not full-time equivalent. In November, I asked the First Minister about constituents in Porthcawl being unable to get appointments, despite the practice working hard to see patients. He assured me that more clinician time would be released to help GPs, but my constituents are still finding it hard to get an appointment in Porthcawl. So, Minister, what urgent measures are you taking to ensure that GPs are attracted into full-time work at their practices and that patients, such as my own constituents, are freely able to see them in a face-to-face setting?

Well, thanks very much, and, obviously, the pandemic meant that GPs started to work in a different way, and I think lots of the public have welcomed this new way and new approach. So, we're not going to go back to a position where we insist that everybody is seen face to face by a GP, but what I will say is that, actually, we have a new general medical services contract in place, which means that, for example, the accessibility to GPs is written within the contract. There are some that are performing better than others, and, obviously, we need to look at best practice. But what I can tell you is that I don't think I've seen GPs ever working harder than they are now. There was a time in December where 400,000 contacts were made by GPs in Wales in a week—that's quite an extraordinary amount of work being done by them. And what I can say is that, actually, per head of population, there are more GPs in Wales than there are in England, and what we have seen is a 15 per cent increase from 2017 to 2021. And it is very difficult; you can't force people to work full-time. In fact, part of what we need to do is to make sure that people feel that they can work flexibly, because the last thing we want to do is to lose people who are prepared to work flexibly and give any amount of time. I think it'd be better to make sure that we keep them in the system in some way rather than lose them altogether.