Will the Cabinet Secretary make a statement on the schedule for publishing primary care contracts or terms of service between primary care providers and local health boards, which will place duties on them to provide services in Welsh, as referred to on page 10 of the explanatory memorandum to the Welsh Language Standards Regulations (No. 7) 2018?
It is proposed that Welsh Language duties will be placed on independent primary care providers, namely General Practitioners, General Dental Practitioners, Community Pharmacists and Optometrists through their primary care contracts or terms of service.
The proposed duties to be placed on primary care contractors are –
The contractor will:
1) provide information to the Local Health Board about which primary care services the contractor is able to offer through the medium of Welsh;
2) take advantage of the translation service offered by the Local Health Board in order to provide a bilingual sign when erecting a sign in connection with the services it provides on behalf of the Local Health Board;
3) make available to patients and members of the public any Welsh language version of a document and forms provided to the contractor by the Local Health Board;
4) encourage their Welsh speaking staff to wear a badge provided by the Local Health Board that conveys that the wearer is able to speak Welsh;
5) encourage and provide opportunities for their staff to attend training courses and events arranged by the Local Health Board, and to make available to staff information provided by the Local Health Board, to develop their awareness of the Welsh language and understanding of how to use Welsh in the workplace; and
6) encourage the recording of the active offer and patient language preference
No specific meetings have been held with the independent primary care providers to specifically discuss the Welsh Language Standards Regulations (No. 7). Initial discussions have been held with the General Practitioners Committee (Wales), the GP’s representative body and they have been supportive and in agreement to the duties to be placed on GP independent contractors.
Further discussions will be held with the independent primary care providers over the following months regarding the specific amendments required to the following regulations to include the above 6 duties:
· The National Health Service (General Medical Services Contracts) (Wales) Regulations 2004
· The National Health Service (General Dental Services Contracts) (Wales) Regulations 2006
· The National Health Service (Personal Dental Services Agreements)(Wales) Regulations 2006
· The National Health Service (General Ophthalmic Services) Regulations 1986
· The National Health Service (Pharmaceutical Services) (Wales) Regulations 2013
It is anticipated that amendments to the above regulations will come into force on 1 April 2019 and we will work with Health Boards and providers on communicating the duties agreed