NHS: GP says private care can help cut waiting lists
BBCA doctor who has opened a private GP surgery says the private sector can help ease the pressure on the NHS.
Dr Beth Howells had worked in the NHS for nearly 20 years before leaving recently to begin a surgery on the Ceredigion/Carmarthenshire border.
She believes there will be an expansion of private primary healthcare at a time when GP services are under pressure.
The Welsh government said it was up to individuals if they wanted to use private health care instead of the NHS.
Last year, Dr Howells returned her NHS contract and opened her own surgery in Newcastle Emlyn.
Dr Howells said people opted to pay for a private GP as they felt they could not wait two or three weeks for a GP appointment at their NHS practice.
She believes that her role as a private GP will take some of the pressure off the NHS, at a time when GP services are in the headlines.
Figures from the British Medical Association (BMA) show that the number of patients per full time equivalent GP in Wales have gone up from 1,676 in 2013 to 2,210 in 2022.
"It's difficult to predict the future and how things will evolve and where the demand will be," said Dr Howells.
"But I personally think it's impossible for the NHS to provide everything to everybody.
"The population has expanded enormously, people are living longer due to good health care, which means that there will be a role for additional services which the NHS will not be in a position to offer."
BMA Wales said doctors leaving the NHS for the private sector was "a symptom of... the impact of chronic underinvestment in general practice over a number of years".
It added: "Welsh government must commit to a reversal of this underfunding and restore NHS general practice to its place as the foundation of a high-quality, cost-effective health system."
The Welsh government said it had provided financial incentives to attract GP trainees to speciality training schemes in mid, north and west Wales, "areas which, historically, have been difficult to recruit for".
After more than 32 years in the NHS, nurse Neris Davies has decided to move to the private sector due to the pressure.
Ms Davies said she dreaded going to work while in the NHS as she felt she was constantly playing catch-up with her work.
"People would come in quite irate because you were behind time and, as a nurse, I wanted to give patients the time that they needed.
"So going home was also frustrating because you felt that you haven't given your best and it's hard to switch off from that.
Since changing surgeries last year, she said she felt happier coming to work and feels the pressures are not the same.
On the streets of Newcastle Emlyn, people were both interested and reluctant in paying for a GP service.
Alex Baker, 24, said: "If it was life or death and you can't get to A&E and there's a GP you have to see. But if it's for something that isn't major, then no."
But Iris Rush, 76, added: "If you need to see them, then you do what you have to. So if I had to pay, I'd have to pay."
Oliver Evans, 31, believes more needs to be done to improve access to NHS GPs.
"If it comes to it, everybody will have to pay for private healthcare and that's why we have to protect the NHS," he said.
"If everyone had the money, they would go and do it. But at the end of the day, the NHS is what makes this country Great Britain, to a certain extent, it's one of our greatest achievements.
"It's a necessity to have your healthcare. So if it's pushed in that direction, us as a working class won't have a choice, will we," he said. The Welsh government said it wanted people "to be able to access GP services on the NHS in Wales as quickly as possible, based on need" but it was up to individuals if they wanted to go private instead.
