Brexit could lead to an exodus of medical experts from Wales, warns Gething
and have had 144 acceptances so I’ve done what I said I’d do in that if we had good candidates and could overfill in some parts of Wales and ensured we kept those people in the system.”
But he admitted that many GPs would need to change their roles and work more collaboratively with other medical professionals if primary care was to evolve and meet the needs of patients.
“Part of people’s anxiety over the last few years has been their worry that there weren’t enough GPs coming in and accepting places and there is still more we need to do about how we maintain our current workforce. GPs are very honest with me about the challenges they’ve faced but they also felt there were some answers to these challenges.
“We need to relieve the pressure on them and change the job so that it is more interesting for all of them and that will require some GPs to alter the way they work and involve a different mix of health and care professionals.”
Wales is currently in the throes of the busy winter period which often puts pressure on the entire health and social care system.
The drop in temperature often causes a spike in ill-health, inevita- bly leading to some patients needing hospital treatment.
This is particularly true in the elderly population who often have a range of chronic conditions which tend to flare up during this period.
They are also more prone than most to suffering nasty trips and falls and needing a lengthier spells on a hospital bed, causing blockages in the system.
But while Mr Gething admitted every winter poses a huge challenge he believes preparations for the cold snap improve year on year.
“Every winter I go in with real concern because we know there will be more pressure,” he added. “We know that pressure will come from older, sicker people arriving in every part of our health and care system and it is a constant challenge for the whole system to be better organised, better prepared, and then to understand what more we can do.
“Our plans are not just health service plans – they’re plans drawn up between health services, local authorities and emergency services.
“And each year it looks like we’re better prepared than the year before. We have learnt lessons.”
And he believes at the turn of the year, once Christmas and New Year’s Eve are out of the way, that the NHS will see a spike in people needing medical attention.
“You can predict, with pretty near certainty, that soon after that New Year period you will see a significant rise in people turning up at a hospital or turning up for local healthcare needs.
“People put things off and try and manage to get through Christmas and the New Year and arrive in the health system pretty soon afterwards.
“But there are some things that aren’t predictable and you need contingency plans for.
“So you need to be able to flex capacity in hospitals – you need to have more beds, more staff available, thinking about packages of care that are available, as it’s important we get them out of hospital and into appropriate care.
“We have had mild flu seasons in the past few years and a lot more warning this year about the difficult flu season in the Southern Hemisphere – in Australia and New Zealand in particular – so there are real risks and challenges. But every year we appear to get a bit better – every year there’s more to learn.”
One of the biggest worries every year, he said, was making sure elderly people are kept out of hospital set- ting and given care as close to home as possible.
But he believed huge challenges remain in commissioning care outside of the hospital sector.
“There’s been some progress but you won’t find a single health board or local authority that can look you in the eye and say they had all of that right,” he added.
“At the same time we have some fragility within the residential care sector. Every month you’ll see some concern about a residential care home somewhere in Wales.
“And that’s part of our problem – understanding what we need to commission for the future and give people the confidence to invest in delivering residential and nursing care for the future.
“We are trying to have incentives about the standing of the workforce and about how businesses can engage in developing their own workforce and making it a more attractive and rewarding career to enter into.
“The bigger problem is the overall investment in public services. We always have a very difficult choice to make when we run our budget.
“Social care in Wales has been more protected than in England, undoubtedly, and there are a range