A Mid Wales Assembly Member has warned of an impending crisis in the recruitment and retention of GPs in Mid Wales as a result of poor workforce planning.
Russell George, the Assembly Member for Montgomeryshire, has this week raised the issue of GP recruitment and retention with both the First Minister and Health Minister in the National Assembly for Wales following recent discussions with local GPs and Powys Teaching Health Board.
Mr George said:
"Many doctors are close to retirement age, with too few younger medics stepping in to replace them.
"At present, I understand there are five surgeries in Montgomeryshire attempting to recruit GPs and in spite of the hard work and dedication of staff, several practices are having to make changes to the way in which medical care is provided due to the imminent retirement of a number of GPs.
"The shortage of GPs nationally, combined with the local challenges of recruiting GPs in Mid Wales, is clearly a much wider issue that needs to be addressed by the Welsh and UK Governments.
"For my part, I have asked both the First Minister and Health Minister to intervene with measures to: supplement the current efforts of Powys Teaching Health Board by promoting GP vacancies on the Welsh Government’s website; provide additional support to GPs to incentivise them to practice in sparsely populated areas; and encourage a greater proportion of medical graduates to go into general practice in the first place.
"If we are to avoid this situation from becoming a serious crisis in the near future, we must act now to find practical and effective solutions to manage the medical workforce to provide patients with peace of mind and to ensure that the high level of care which is currently provided by our GP surgeries is not compromised."