I regularly receive “campaign emails” in relation to a variety of topics.
These emails are typically automatically generated. As such, I receive many hundreds if not thousands.
It is therefore not practical for me to respond personally to each of these.
Instead, I publish the response on my website. This can be found below.
Please be assured this policy only applies to automatically generated communications.
If you send me personalised correspondence, on this or any subject, then I will of course respond individually, and address any points raised.
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Thank you for writing to me concerning the state of general practice in Wales.
In May this year my Welsh Conservative colleagues and I tabled a debate in the Senedd to call on the Welsh Government to take urgent action to protect our general practices, adopt the BMA Cymru ‘Save Our Surgeries’ key campaign calls, and to ensure that the full Barnett consequential arising from NHS spending by the UK Government are spent on the health service in Wales – Labour, Plaid Cymru and the Liberal Democrats voted down our motion.
When we tabled the debate, 99 Welsh GP surgeries had closed since 2012 – that number has now sadly hit the 100 mark. I am aware that BMA Cymru have since called on the Welsh Government to implement an urgent rescue package for general practice, which my Welsh Conservative colleagues and I wholeheartedly support. This would mark a positive change from the managed decline of our services that Labour have presided over in Wales for the past 25 years, with now only 6.1% of the NHS Wales budget going directly into the General Medical Services contract, down from 8.7% in 2005/6, and recent survey results from the BMJ showing that 95% of GPs that responded feel negatively about the future of the Welsh general practice.
Welsh Conservatives back our GPs, which is why we will continue to push the Labour Government in Cardiff Bay for proper funding for our practices and stronger efforts to bolster and support our general practice workforce.
I thank you again for taking the time to contact me.
Kind regards,
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As a resident in your constituency, I am writing to you to express my concerns about the state of general practice in Wales. I was shocked to learn that since 2012, 100 GP surgeries in Wales have closed. This means there are fewer doctors in this community and across Wales to deliver general medical services, and there are few signs of this improving. Despite this shocking statistic, our GPs in Wales continue to suffer from a lack of funding and resources for their practices and their staff. Welsh Government currently gives each GP surgery less that £120 a year per patient – less than the cost of a TV licence. With 25% fewer GPs working full-time in Wales than in 2013, those who remain are exhausted and losing morale. General practice is being broken. The people of Wales deserve better than this. Giving a fairer share of NHS funding to General practice could help: – Retain, train and hire more GPs which Wales desperately needs
– Deliver the services the public require – Make it easier for us all to get the appointments we need As my Member of the Senedd, I am calling on you to publicly support the BMA Cymru Wales’s Save our Surgeries campaign which calls for Welsh Government to urgently: 1. Commit to funding general practice properly. General practice desperately needs a fairer portion of the Welsh NHS budget (at least 11%) in the next five years to fund growing pressures and demands. 2. Invest in the workforce of general practice. Welsh Government must introduce a national standard for a maximum number of patients that GPs can reasonably deal with during a working day to allow GPs to continue to deliver a safe and high-quality service. 3. Produce a workforce strategy making sure that Wales trains, hires and keeps enough GPs working here to move toward an average number of GPs per 1000 people like that of other European countries. This must focus on keeping existing GPs working in general practice in Wales and tackling the problems driving them out of the profession. 4. Address staff wellbeing by producing a long-term strategy to improve the physical, mental, and emotional well-being of the workforce. You can read more about the campaign here: https://eur02.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.bma.org.uk%2Fadvice-and-support%2Fnhs-delivery-and-workforce%2Fpressures%2Fwales-save-our-surgeries-campaign&data=05%7C02%7CPaul.Davies%40senedd.wales%7C1def53cfe02b461a147c08dca8db703b%7C38dc5129340c45148a044e8ef2771564%7C0%7C0%7C638570907633613134%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C0%7C%7C%7C&sdata=%2Fo3rO2w16jx8havZb72%2FagUPbTWryepMgbosF58uCHQ%3D&reserved=0. As a patient of the NHS in Wales, and your constituent, I would value your voice in the Senedd and beyond to raise awareness of these issues, and to hold Welsh Government and decision makers to account. We all deserve better than this. I look forward to hearing from you.