Personally
I tend to do my research and actually to read something to try to gain an understanding
before I express an opinion, hence the pretty much instant an vociferous attack
launched by the usual suspects on Plaid proposals for recruiting doctors tended
to suggest that the proposals had more than a little merit. Having read it, I
think that the proposal to pay off the debt of student doctors as part of a
package of measures to overcome the recruitment crisis threatening the future
of the Welsh NHS was one of the sharper pieces of political thinking so far
this year.
The policy would be in return for a
number of guaranteed years’ service, help to tackle the recruitment crisis in
the Welsh NHS, by attracting 1,000 doctors. The ongoing failure to
attract doctors to Wales has been used as one of the main excuses behind the Labour
in Wales Government’s centralisation agenda of the Welsh Government and health
boards.
The Labour in Wales Government’s policy of centralization; which is something
that is particularly ill-suited to a country such as ours, has now placed under
threat the services at numerous local hospitals. It is has also estimated that there is
a GP ‘time bomb‘ which will severely effect certain parts of Wales with many GP’s
being on the verge of retirement which combined with a real lack of new
recruits ready to replace them – means that we have a problem that needs to be
solved.
At
Plaid Cymru’s autumn conference, party leader Leanne Wood made a pledge to
recruit an extra 1,000 doctors to Wales over two terms of a Welsh Government
led by her. Such a recruitment drive would help offset the fact that
Wales has one of the lowest levels of doctors per head of the population in the
EU with only Romania and Poland worse off. The consultation is also
seeking to improve access to GPs in the community, tackle the lengthening
waiting lists for operations and increase the capacity of the NHS to deal with
an ageing population.
Plaid’s consultation document outlines
in greater detail how the 1,000 doctors will be enlisted to shore up Wales’s
creaking NHS. The exercise will seek to lay solid foundations for the NHS
in Wales to not just to survive, but to thrive. The policies contained in
the consultation document are grouped into four main themes; financial
incentives, creating an innovative NHS, revamping and reinvesting in training
and finally, international recruitment. A number of the policies are a
combination of long-term and short term measures which the Welsh Government
could, and should be, encouraging as a matter of urgency.
Some of the policies will require extra
funding; some measures are designed to save money such as the creation of a
paperless NHS to cut down on bureaucracy and mainstreaming clinical research in
order to bring in extra research income. The
consultation document includes proposals to:
- Pay
off student debt for doctors in return for them spending a portion of their
training and early employment in an under-served area.
- Develop
an innovative NHS and a heavy emphasis on research to make Wales a more
attractive place for doctors to develop their careers.
- Revamp
training for postgraduate doctors to improve the skills that currently exists.
- Recruit
doctors from foreign countries as a short term solution to specific staffing
shortages.
Naturally
Plaid’s radical proposals were roundly condemned by Labour Party in Wales
elected representatives. I personally will lose no sleep over this, as by way
of comparison to previous condemnations of Plaid proposals, this means that
within about six months Labour in Wales will be discussing it. And a few months
after that the barely edited Plaid’s proposals will be orthodox Labour in Wales
policy, and in their manifesto by 2016. This will retrospectively tell us two
things, firstly that Plaid’s proposal is realistic and secondly that Labour in
Wales is entirely bereft of any worthwhile ideas.
