Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 3:57 pm on 28 March 2023.
Thank you very much. I think it's important for us to consider what access means to people and what their direct experiences are, so thanks for recognising that that research is ongoing. I think that perhaps we do need to help people to understand that what has happened historically in terms of having access to GPs isn't necessarily the way that things will work in the future, partly because it's not good use of our GPs. That's why we have to divert people to people who are going to treat them with more expertise in one area or another that is more appropriate for them. That is a change, and I do understand that is a difficult one for people to understand, but I do think that that's the change that we need to see.
What we hope to see is more co-ordination on a cluster level, so the GPs and so forth will work with the allied health professionals and others who work in that area, and with pharmacies and so forth, and they will start to collaborate much better than they have in the past. That is working well in some places, but evidently we have to go further.
Regarding access, I think it's interesting because, very often, we hear a lot of noise about people who don't get good treatment, but a lot of people come up to me and tell me how much they like the e-consult model, which is working very well for many people, particularly those who are in employment. They don't have time to go and see GP and they like having that access. So, things are working better for some people than others, and I think we have to acknowledge that.
We have spent millions on trying to get people to understand that there are other ways of obtaining access to treatment. That's why the 'Help Us to Help You' campaign is to be seen everywhere. It's been very visible. It's difficult to escape from it. I think that that has worked well, and it does provide information to people that pharmacies are available, that 111 is available, that urgent primary care centres are available and that there are lots of other places that you can go to instead of the GP. I think that that has started to work well, but we need to just keep on reminding people. Once people understand that for the first time, they will hopefully pursue those options in the future.
In terms of dentistry, I do acknowledge that there is room for improvement, but I do think that things are improving. So, we have a long way to go, but we are on the right track, and I think that that's important. But, what's clear is that we can't just turn things around overnight; these things take time in terms of training people. That's why I think it's difficult, particularly when we're trying to change systems. What we want to do is to use more people such as dental therapists, and that's why we're opening up a greater number of centres in places such as north Wales.
In terms of the CHCs and the new group, Llais, I do think that it is important that the voice of NHS users is heard clearly. There's been a lot of preparation in terms of moving from the CHCs to Llais, so there is a lot of preparation to do. The majority of the people who worked for the CHCs, they will be TUPE-ed over, so they'll be the same people, but the system is going to be slightly different. So, I do acknowledge that it's important that people do understand that the system is going to change and that there will be a campaign that people do understand that this new system will be in place.