1000 DOCTORS

Several of our health services have struggled because of staff pressures, there are simply not enough doctors to deliver services safely. This situation is mirrored in the primary care sector, where up to 40% of our GP’s are close to retirement in some areas and because of this GP services are beginning to come under pressure. Problems with recruiting the next generation of GP’s means that existing doctors are increasingly overworked and increasingly under pressure. We need to start to address these issues and attract more doctors in GP and hospital practice. There is no one single magic solution to the recruitment crisis; Plaid has proposed a combination of policies that will attract 1000 extra doctors. These include financial incentives including a bond scheme to pay off student loans in exchange for guaranteed service – this has been used very successfully in New Zealand. A combination of direct salaries to attract GP’s to those areas where it is difficult to recruit and making use of the EU to fill short term gaps – something that too many of our Local Health Boards (LHBs) have failed to use – so far on three of our LHB have half-heartedly tried to recruit doctors from the EU. These are short term solutions, along with this we need long term investment in our medical schools to create home grown doctors. Currently some 95% of doctors who complete their training in Wales choose to stay in Wales. It is also important that training rotas should give trainee doctors a much wider experience, particularly in those areas where it is hard to recruit – this is particularly crucial when it comes to recruiting GP’s.

INVESTING IN OUR NHS

Plaid Cymru wants to press ahead with an achievable training and recruitment plan that brings the number of doctors per head in Wales initially to the UK average then beyond. This is the 1000 doctors policy. 1000 extra doctors would take us to the level of the North East of England, which has similar health needs. Wales would still be substantially below the EU average or Scotland – but it would be a step forward.

One thousand extra doctors would add between £70 to £100 million to the payroll at current rates depending on which specialisms the doctors ended up working in (and includes calculations for additional financial incentives). However, because this cost would be a gradual rise of the wage bill over the next 10 years as the doctors were recruited and trained, the financial hit wouldn’t be experienced immediately. The current health and social care budget is £6.5 billion – so our proposal involves increasing spending by less than 1% of the current budget within 10 years.

The adoption of this policy would lead to substantial savings from the agency and locum bills – which amount to over £100 million a year. Furthermore a pop tax would raise £45 million, plus reduce NHS expenditure on diabetes – which currently represents 10% of the NHS budget.

However, people who are familiar with the NHS know that finance is not the obstacle to recruitment of doctors. Making the NHS in Wales more attractive for doctors to work in is the main challenge we would face. That’s why we proposed many policies such as a paperless NHS, making the NHS research friendly, and developing more home grown doctors through investments in training

The need is obvious; wards are closing and services being moved from local hospitals because of a shortage of doctors, almost a quarter of GPs are close to retirement and will need to be replaced (in the valleys this figure approaches 50%), and the demands on the health service are rising daily. We simply won’t have an NHS without doctors – solving the GP shortage by asking people in the Valleys to travel to Cardiff or in our rural areas to travel long distances to see a GP is just not an option.