Out of hours GPs


Llanelli Star column published on October 18th 2017

I was very impressed by my visit to the chemists in Burry Port last week where Rachel Davies is pioneering new services in the community. There are now eight different services - including flu-jabs and warfarin tests - being delivered in Burry Port that elsewhere are only available from a doctor.

Very many services can be delivered more conveniently and efficiently in a local setting. We need to be doing more things like this to take pressure off GPs and hospitals. 

From the number of Doctor’s surgeries in this area that are closed to new patients, we know that GPs are under great pressure, and it is set to get worse. Health board managers are gearing up for further difficulties in Llanelli as Doctors get closer to retirement and they struggle to attract new GPs into the area.

We are training more Doctors and are having successes in creating new types of surgeries, like in Kidwelly, where GPs and pharmacists work alongside physios to offer a better service to patients. But it's hard. 

This week rumours spread that the Health Board are going to 'pull the plug' on out-of-hours GP services in Llanelli.

I've been in touch with the Health Board Chief Executive and he assures me that is not the case, but there is a problem as a result of new tax rules which mean that GPs who work for themselves (which is most of them) will have to pay more national insurance contributions from November 1st. 

If enough of the GPs decide not to carry on providing cover, there will be big problems with out-of-hours services across the country.

In the event of a shortage the Health Board have had to come up with contingency plans which would see cover from Carmarthen, and that is what started the concern. But after speaking to him the Chief Executive has intervened. He told me “there are no plans to shift the service to Glangwili. We expect the service to continue to run from Llanelli without change”. 

Clearly this needs to be sorted immediately and I spoke to Health Secretary Vaughan Gething this week to press the Welsh Government to ensure that it is. It's not a problem of their making, but it is one they have to solve.


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Dysgu gwersi

Image
A note to members of the Llanelli constituency Labour Party There has been a big disagreement within Welsh Labour. There has not been a ‘witch-hunt’ against Vaughan Gething, but there has been a genuine conflict of values. Now there is an appetite to quickly move on, but I think there’s a real danger that in shutting down discussion we will neither understand nor learn the lessons of what has happened.  As uncomfortable as it will be I think we need proper debate about the future direction of Welsh Labour. Circling the wagons around a ‘unity candidate’ may bring some short-term relief, but it will do nothing to address the fundamental need to renew in office. I’ve not given any interview and don’t intent to, but as a way of making sense of it all I’ve written this assessment which looks at what should happen now and an analysis of how we got to this position.  These are offered in the spirit of honest debate and not point-scoring. Edrych ymlaen We’re in a pickle. After 25 years as the
Read more

Transport for Wales 2.0

Image
Speech to Transport for Wales senior management at Llys Cadwyn, TfW HQ, in Pontypridd on 6th February 2024 Diolch am y croeso a y cyfle. James Price and I meet regularly, and sometimes it feels like we’re in charge. But it really is a privilege to be in the same room as the people who actually do run transport in Wales. And it’s so nice to see people together. I’m still adjusting to meeting people in the flesh who I’m used to seeing online; I still can’t believe how short everyone is when I meet them! Apart from the ones I already knew were short, obviously (you know who you are). The worst thing about those mass Teams calls is that I can’t see people’s reactions to what I’m saying – to confirm that they are drifting off.  So at least I’ll know for sure today that I am boring you – the people in the room at least. It won’t stop me, but it gets rid of the uncertainty. I know we’ve priced-in that politicians' speeches will be insincere, but I really do mean what I say. And I
Read more

2023 - 5 big changes in transport in Wales

Image
Changing direction takes you to a different destination... We ask our transport system to do a lot of things, but we’ve not asked it to make its contribution to our shared challenge of reducing carbon emissions. Indeed, transport is the sector that has contributed the least to the legal duty to cut emissions. Unless that changes we will not meet our overall NetZero imperative . It is difficult for any incoming Transport Minister to change much in the short-term - road and rail projects take upwards of seven years to implement, and the ongoing pipeline of schemes means that significant spending has already been committed and political expectations raised by the time a new Minister takes office. Though the political spotlight is inevitably on short-term problems, significant change is a longer term project. Over and above the day-to-day activity of keeping a transport system on track I have tried to focus on how to ‘change the wiring’ to secure medium to long-term change. For all its ch
Read more