Llyr Gruffydd MS Member of the Senedd for North Wales

Llyr Gruffydd MS backs the Save our Surgeries campaign

Recently Llyr Gruffydd committed to support doctors campaigning to save and better fund GP surgeries, saying primary care is viewed as a Cinderella service with the NHS.  Mr Gruffydd said that maintaining GP surgeries in all parts of the region was essential to ensure access for all patients.

He added: "Doctors in Wales, through the British Medical Association, are highlighting the pressures GPs face and I know that many surgeries in the north Wales region are facing huge challenges in terms of recruiting GPs and maintaining services, especially in some rural areas. I'm pleased to say that a recent recruitment campaign in Betws y Coed, where a GP practice was in danger of closing, was a success but there are ongoing challenges in many areas.

"It was a pleasure to speak to BMA Wales members Dr Phil White, Dr Sara Bodey and Dr Paul Emmett to learn more about the workload issues and problematic buildings. I know from my campaigning for a new GP surgery building in Hanmer, for example, how important that is for improved patient care.

"We have a growing elderly and less healthy population and this is placing enormous pressure on our health service. As GPs are the first port of call for patients it's important that they are adequately resourced.

"Plaid Cymru has a long-standing policy to increase the numbers of doctors in Wales and that also means more GPs - in 2012 a GP had an average of 1719 patients, today they have an average of 2318. We also have 25% fewer full-time equivalent GPs compared with a decade ago and the proportion of NHS Wales funded provided to GPs has reduced from 8.7% in 2005/6 to 6.1% in 2022-3. That's a significant reduction and helps explain while primary care is often seen as the Cinderella service within our NHS. 

"Having a medical school here in the North will provide a solution over time and that was a hard-fought campaign by Plaid Cymru. We've been committed to improving our NHS and in particular primary care for all my time as an MS but the Labour Welsh Government has not prioritised that need. We need the political will to make the changes needed to improve our NHS, otherwise we will continue to see GPs prematurely leave the health service because of workload pressures."