A Community Nursing Strategy for Wales, published in March, proposes removing funding from GPs’ global sum to pay for practice nurses to go on training courses.

GPC chairman Dr David Bailey told GP newspaper the document contained ‘a number of completely unacceptable proposals’.

‘It's almost certainly illegal,’ he said. ‘It (WAG) wants to interfere with our employed staff and our contract.

‘It wants to take money from our global sum to pay for nurses to go off on courses.’

GPs in Wales already receive on average 20% less than their English colleagues, despite being ‘the sickest nation in the UK’, Gwent GP Dr Neil Statham told the Welsh LMCs conference in Swansea on Saturday.  

The document suggests that all practice nurses be employed directly by local health boards to ensure equal training and career prospects are available to all.

Dr Sean Young, representing Morgannwg LMC, said that practices nurses were ‘horrified’ by the document. ‘They [WAG] want to take control of our practice nurses,’ he said.

WAG is launching a consultation on the strategy, due to end in June. 

GPC Wales and the Welsh Deanery are developing a separate revalidation process to the rest of the UK.

GPC Wales chairman Dr David Bailey told LMC representatives in Swansea revalidation in Wales would be a less bureaucratic version of the RCGP’s.

The conference agreed that appraisal in Wales is ‘the envy of the UK’ and Dr Bailey said an alternative contractor would be appointed to implement revalidation in Wales, rather than the RCGP.

Primary care in Wales faces both a lack of representation and a lack of funding as health boards reorganise, Welsh GPs fear.

The conference heard that LMCs will be bypassed as primary and secondary care boards combine into seven new local health bodies.  

tom.ireland@haymarket.com

• See this week’s GP newspaper dated 3 April for more coverage from the Welsh LMCs conference.

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