MORE must be done to address “grave concern” over the number of GPs who could retire in Ceredigion and rural Wales, the county’s AM has insisted.

Elin Jones, Plaid Cymru’s shadow health minister, said there was mounting worry over the future of GP services in Ceredigion, with many GPs expected to retire in coming years and a lack of GPs coming through to fill those vacancies.

Health chiefs have admitted that efforts to increase the number of GPs in the Hywel Dda area are needed to head off future problems and have insisted they are considering a number of ways of boosting GP numbers.

Ms Jones said with a greater emphasis on patients receiving services in the community, GPs were vital.

She said: “Primary care is vital to the modern, responsive health service we want to see in the future. It’s too often neglected, and the share of the NHS budget spent on doctors’ surgeries has declined over recent years.

“There isn’t as much of a crisis in all areas, but certainly in Ceredigion and other rural areas there is very grave concern at the moment. We know that many are due to retire in the coming years, and there’s a lack of GPs coming through the system to work in our surgeries. A surgery closed in Aberaeron, and there will be more of the same unless action is taken.

“In Europe, only in Bulgaria, Romania and Slovenia is the number of doctors per head lower than it is in Wales."

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