Wales NHS: Hywel Dda warns patients of travel to see GP

St Clears Surgery has applied formally to close its branch at Laugharne

Patients may need to travel further to their surgery, according to mid and west Wales health chiefs.

Hywel Dda University Health Board said recruiting GPs was a national problem, with a need to look at alternative ways to provide primary care.

Deputy medical director of primary care Siôn James said GPs were keener to work part-time, and young doctors were less interested in being practice partners.

"It's difficult to recruit to surgeries which are more remote," he said.

"Perhaps a patient may need to travel to a surgery which is a little further away and we may need to accept that because we can't do anything about it as things are."

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His comments came amid concerns that local services will be lost in Carmarthenshire due to recruitment difficulties.

St Clears Surgery has made a formal application to close its branch at Laugharne, and the partners of the Cross Hands and Tumble Surgery in Carmarthenshire have resigned their general medical services contract, effective at the end March.

In Laugharne, hundreds of people have attended public meetings over the past week.

"We've written to them a number of times over the years, asking them when we'll return to having a doctor here," says Laugharne mayor Pam Jones

Laugharne mayor Pam Jones said she feared fewer services offered over time, with the aim to shut the surgery's doors permanently.

"As a local council, we've written to them a number of times over the years, asking them when we'll return to having a doctor here. They've never mentioned a staffing problem."

"Older people cannot travel to St Clears," she added.

"The health board says that offering a local service is a priority, and now they're closing our local surgery."

As officials consider Laugharne surgery closure proposals, the public engagement period has been extended to 8 December.

Meanwhile, hundreds have been at open evenings in Cross Hands and Tumble to find out more about the future of their local surgery.

Jill Paterson, the board's director of primary, community and long-term care, said: "The partnership attempted to recruit a GP or an extra senior practitioner to join their busy practice, but have failed to do so".

The board is considering two options: the contract will either be re-tendered to find a new partnership of doctors, or patients will be spread around other surgeries in the area.

Meryl Evans says she cannot see how everyone can be spread out to other surgeries

The latter option worries Meryl Evans, who has always lived in the area.

"It sounds like a joke," she said. "How can you spread 7,500 people of all ages across the area, when you know that all the other places - every surgery - are sure to be filled to the brim?"

The board maintains that the care will continue to be provided as usual by the same team until the end of March 2024. Patients should still be registered with their surgery whilst long-term plans are being developed.

Dr Ian Harris, deputy chair of the BMA's GP committee in Wales, said says surgeries were withering, and that work pressures on GPs meant many were leaving their jobs.

"Everyone is working hard, harder than ever. There are around 30% more patients per head to every full-time GP compared to a decade ago. As the workload increases, with less resources, people say they've had enough."

One in four respondents to a Royal College of General Practitioners questionnaire this year said they did not expect to be at their current job in five years. Work pressure and hours were the main two reasons given.

The board says it wants to see as many people as possible engage in the debate

Welsh Conservative health spokesman Russell George said Labour ministers "say that GP recruitment targets are being hit" but "I would suggest that those targets are clearly not ambitious enough".

"The Welsh Conservatives want to see the Labour Welsh government replicate Rishi Sunak's workforce plan and to adopt our calls for a tuition fee refund for healthcare workers that stay in Wales to boost numbers."

Plaid Cymru Member of the Senedd (MS) Cefin Campbell said the number of doctors needed to increase.

"Research shows that once doctors, dentists, nurses and so on come to train in an area, they tend to stay there," he said.

"Therefore, Welsh government need a targeted strategy to recruit doctors especially, but dentists too in rural Wales. If this is not acted upon, we'll see a further deterioration in those essential services people who live in rural areas deserve."

The Welsh government said: "A programme of specialist training for GPs has been expanded substantially over the last three years, and since launching the Train, Work, Live campaign, a significant increase has been in the rate of applications for GP training courses.

"The current recruitment target of 160 new GPs in training every year is consistently reached, and funds will be allocated to recruit up to 200 trainees if suitable applicants are available."

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