Will the Welsh Government be increasing the funds available for health boards to expand the presence of GPs in their area during the remainder of this Senedd?
Over the past three years, we have made significant investment in general practice as part of a wider contract reform programme, including £20m last year. Funding for general practice is subject to tripartite negotiations between the Welsh Government, NHS Wales and GPC Wales as the GP professional body. Negotiations for 2024-25 are ongoing.
From 1 April 2022, capacity funding of £4m was made available recurrently for three years to practices via health boards. This scheme facilitates match funding of up to 50% of the cost of either additional posts on appointment or additional hours worked by existing post-holders, enabling GP practices to take on additional administrative and clinical resourcing with the aim of increasing GP capacity and improving patient outcomes.
We are investing more than £5m a year in our Partnership Premium Scheme, which provides an incentive for people to take up valued GP partner roles.
The Train Work Live marketing campaign has worked with partners to deliver a significant increase in the take up of GP training places in Wales. Financial incentives are also offered to attract GP trainees to specialty training schemes in mid, north and west Wales; areas to which it has been historically difficult to recruit.