New plan to develop frontline NHS Wales workforce

A new plan to strengthen the primary care workforce to deliver new models of care and look after more people close to their homes has been published by Health and Social Services Minister Mark Drakeford today.

The primary care workforce plan will be backed by an extra £4.5m of funding as the Welsh Government continues to invest in primary care to recruit, educate and train the wide range of healthcare professionals who are key to providing health services in local communities.

The majority of patient contacts with the Welsh NHS are in primary care services, such as GP surgeries; NHS dentists or local opticians. The plan outlines how the Welsh Government will continue to invest in GPs, community nurses, pharmacists, healthcare support workers and other clinical staff to provide more care closer to people’s homes and move services out of hospitals.

The plan supports the continued development of the 64 primary care clusters across Wales, which include GPs working with pharmacists, dentists, optometrists, therapists, nurses and healthcare workers.

It calls for a more robust and joined-up approach to workforce planning, including greater sharing of information, which will help redesign ways of providing care outside hospitals.

The strategy also includes a number of actions to stabilise core sections of the workforce, including GPs and nurses, by supporting people who want to return to practice or work part-time; exploring how training and working in general practice can be encouraged in areas of greatest need and communicating the opportunities afforded by general practice in Wales.

Measures include:

• Increase the number of Welsh Government-funded places on return-to-nursing practice courses
• Investment in advanced and extended skills, including non-medical prescribing and advance practice education
• Working with health boards and universities to develop an education and training programme for physicians associates in Wales
• Establish how Wales can move to a position where multi-professional training becomes the norm for centrally-funded NHS education programmes
• Expand the range of care settings in which training can be carried out and build on the experiences of learning wards in community settings
• Analyse existing and future Welsh language population needs and the support needed by the workforce to meet those needs
• Establish a national programme of organisational development for the 64 primary care clusters
• Expand the GP retainer scheme, which offers flexible working opportunities to encourage professionals thinking of retiring to stay in work part-time
• Reimburse medical school fees when a newly-qualified doctor commits to a career in general practice
• A national GP recruitment campaign promoting the benefits of a career in Wales
• Changing the law to make it easier for GPs registered to work in England to work in Wales for short periods of time without the need to make a full application to join a Welsh health board’s performers list
• Working with medical schools to increase the proportion of general practice and community placements medical students experience.

Professor Drakeford said:

“Our goal is to meet the rising demand for healthcare by making the most of the skills our dedicated primary care workforce already have and supporting them in their continued desire to innovate and improve the services they provide every day.

“This can be achieved by bringing together teams of people with the necessary skills to meet the needs of people and the local communities they serve. It is also important that everyone in those teams works at the top of their clinical competence – they only do what only they can do.

“This prudent healthcare approach to developing our primary care workforce will improve access to care and the continuity and quality of that care.  It is also central to rebalancing the workload of all those who work in primary care so roles and services are sustainable and can adapt to meet future demand.”