£34 million Welsh Government funding boost to move more care into the community

Primary care services in Wales are set to benefit from £34 million investment to provide 24/7 care closer to people’s homes, Welsh health and social services minister Mark Drakeford has announced.

The investment will help GP practices to recruit and train more advanced nurse practitioners, clinical pharmacists and therapists to work alongside GPs as part of a joined-up primary care team. This will ensure that GPs’ time is used to best effect in the care of people with complex conditions, helping to keep them healthy at home and prevent unnecessary hospital admissions.

The funding will include a £240,000 nurse-led programme across Wales whereby older people’s mental health nurses will train care home workers to identify early signs of dementia. They will also ensure they inform local GPs of any care home residents who have dementia.

The majority of funding – more than £23 million – will go directly to health boards and Public Health Wales to implement local primary care plans, improving access to GP services and moving care out of hospitals and into the community.

More than £5 million will be invested in 19 projects that look at new ways of planning, organising and delivering the wide range of primary care services. For example, Powys Teaching Health Board is setting up a new call handling and nurse triage model to signpost people to the most appropriate service for their needs. Another example is a mobile unit in Abertawe Bro Morgannwg University Health Board that will be staffed by a nurse and GP who will respond to emergency situations in the community, helping to prevent people being admitted to hospital.

Professor Drakeford said: ‘This significant new package of funding will support a wide range of schemes to make it easier for people to get the right care, at the right time, closer to where they live. It will also help to relieve pressures on GPs by widening access to a broad range of highly-skilled primary care professionals.

‘By managing people’s often complex conditions in primary care, we will not just be keeping people out of hospital but we will be treating them closer to their homes and their families.’