Welsh evening and weekends GP pledge abandoned, claims Plaid

Mark Drakeford says experiments with extended hours showed they were not worth the expense

Plaid Cymru has accused the Welsh Government of abandoning promises to make GPs available to patients in the evenings.

Figures show that surgeries in three health boards do not offer appointments after 1830.

Plaid leader Adam Price accused Labour of struggling to meet its pledge by failing to increase the GP's workforce.

First Minister Mark Drakeford said experiments with extended hours showed they were not worth the expense.

According to figures from March, in 2018 only 43% of practices in Aneruin Bevan health board area, 10% in Hywel Dda, 6% in Powys and 1% in Betsi Cadwaladr had practices with hours beyond 1830.

None in Abertawe Bro Morgannwg, Cwm Taf, or Cardiff and Vale did.

Only Aneruin Bevan practices offered appointments on Saturdays.

• Limited choice for GP appointments

• 'Very difficult' to make GP appointments

Raising the figures in the National Assembly for Wales on Tuesday, Mr Price told AMs that Labour had promised at the 2011 assembly election to make surgeries more accessible at evenings and weekends.

Few health boards offer evening appointments

First Minister Mark Drakeford said experiments with later appointments showed the use of them "was not at a level that we believed... justified the extra expense that had been committed to them".

"We are very keen that people should have as convenient an access as is possible to the healthcare that they need," he told the Senedd chamber.

"Doing that exclusively at the GP practice, doing that exclusively by extending hours, may not be the most effective way of doing that, either for patients or for the professionals who provide that service."

Mr Price said patients who want to access services that are unable to do so at a time that works for them "may give a very, very different response".

He said that since the pledge was made the number of GPs had fallen. "No wonder you couldn't meet the pledge," he said.

Mr Drakeford replied that the number GP training places had risen to the highest level it has ever been.

"We have filled 155 GP training places in Wales and that's the most we have ever done," he said.