What is the Welsh Government doing to increase the number of GP training places in Wales?
Wales, along with other parts of the UK, has needed to deal with the challenges of GP recruitment and retention. To address these challenges, along with a range of related issues, I established a Ministerial Taskforce on the Primary Care Workforce in 2016, with membership drawn from key stakeholders. We are also working closely with GPC Wales, NHS Wales and other partners to make the profession more attractive. This includes addressing concern over the rising costs of indemnity fees through the introduction of a state backed scheme to provide clinical negligence indemnity for providers of GP services in Wales which is due to come into force from April 2019. The scheme will cover all contracted GPs and other health professionals working in NHS general practice, such as salaried GPs, practice pharmacists, practice nurses and healthcare assistants.
This work forms part of the General Medical Services contract reform programme which is currently ongoing and includes a number of areas including improving access to GP and other primary care services, building on multi-agency cluster led planning and delivery, premises and recruiting, retaining and diversifying the workforce.
Our national and international Train Work Live campaign launched in 2016 is promoting the benefits of training and working as a GP in Wales and is targeting the rest of the UK as well as further afield. NHS Wales collectively attended both the Royal College of General Practitioner annual conference and the British Medical Journal Careers Fair this year.
As part of the campaign, two incentives have been made available for GP speciality training. The first of these offers £20,000 to GP trainees who take up a training place in a specified hard-to-recruit area, and who then commit to remain in a targeted area for one year of practice after qualification. The second incentive, available to all GP trainees, is a one off payment of £2,000 to cover the final GP trainee examination costs.
Since the launch of the campaign, there has been a significant increase in the fill rate for GP training. We have also ensured that if there is an oversupply, we would be as flexible as possible in accommodating those who were considered over the line in terms of quality and to whom we would want to offer a place, as we did last year when 144 places were offered, from a target of 136.
To inform any future decisions, Health Education and Improvement Wales will undertake a review of GP training schemes to establish whether the current arrangement are fit for purpose in terms of size, location and quality to deliver an increased number of GP trainees in Wales.