Ceredigion’s Plaid Cymru AM Elin Jones has used the last debate of the current National Assembly to outline the urgent measures needed to address the lack of General Practitioners in rural Wales.
Local Ceredigion AM Elin Jones said;
“Primary care is vital to the modern, responsive Health Service we want to see in the future. It’s too often neglected, and the share of the NHS budget spent on doctors’ surgeries has declined over recent years.
“There isn’t as much of a crisis in all areas, but certainly in Ceredigion and other rural areas there is very grave concern at the moment. We know that many are due to retire in the coming years, and there’s a lack of GPs coming through the system to work in our surgeries. A surgery closed in Aberaeron, and there will be more of the same unless action is taken.
“Therefore, Plaid Cymru has put in place a plan to train and recruit 1,000 additional doctors over a period of 10 years, following the election of the next Welsh Government, together with incentives to work in areas and specialisms where there are shortages.
“It’s now time for our medical schools to have an ambitious quota of intake from Wales. There is sufficient demand from well-qualified prospective students for places in our medical schools. All evidence seems to demonstrate that if you recruit your medical students from the catchment of your medical school, then they are far more likely to remain working in the health service in those catchments.”