In the Assembly Chamber this week, North Wales Assembly Member Mark Isherwood asked the Health Secretary why Welsh General Practice received the lowest share of NHS spend in the United Kingdom last year despite the rise in patient demand.
Mr Isherwood referred to the GP crisis facing Wales and challenged Vaughan Gething over the Welsh Government’s decision to cut the share of funding for General Practice regardless.
He said:
“Despite warnings year after year by the Royal College of General Practitioners and the British Medical Association, the number of registered GPs working in Wales is at its lowest level in five years. In 2014, the Royal College of General Practitioners warned that the share of Welsh NHS funding for patient care in General Practice had been falling for years, and in the same year the North Wales Local Medical Committee came to this Assembly and warned that several practices had been unable to fill vacancies and many GPs were seriously considering retirement because of their currently expanding workload. Why, therefore, did Welsh General Practice receive the lowest share of NHS spend in the United Kingdom last year despite the rise in patient demand?
In his response, the Cabinet Secretary referred to issues such as GP training, but made no reference to why the funding share had been cut.
Mr Isherwood added:
“My question was about his Labour Welsh Government cuts to the share of Welsh NHS funding received by General Practice, not the separate call by GPs for action to address a situation in which Wales has a lower ratio of GP training places than anywhere else in the UK”.