6. What is the Welsh Government’s long term strategy for training doctors in north Wales? OAQ(5)0026(HWS)W

Thank you for the question. We are working with the Wales Deanery, the NHS, the royal colleges, the British Medical Association and professional bodies to ensure that we make Wales an attractive place to train, work and live for any doctor in training, with a particular focus on some of the issues in north Wales. As I said earlier, I will have more to say in the coming months, as we work this through with our key stakeholders to produce a refreshed long-term strategy.

Thank you very much. Almost half of all the doctors on the Llŷn peninsula are over 55 years old, and a large number of them are expected to retire over the next five years, which will lead to a real crisis in the area. There is some evidence that doctors tend to remain where they were trained. So, in order to tackle this shortage of doctors there is a strong argument, as you have mentioned, for having an all-Wales long-term plan to increase the number of medical training places. But, in addition to that, there is also a strong argument for the creation of a new medical school in Bangor so that we can expand provision across Wales, and particularly in north Wales. The First Minister has agreed in this Chamber recently that we need to consider drawing up a business plan for a medical school for north Wales and, indeed, there is a great deal of support from stakeholders within the health sector and the HE sector for this. There is a particular opportunity to create a medical school that can specialise in providing medical services in rural areas. So, Cabinet Secretary, will you commit today to participating in full in the process of creating a medical school in Bangor?

Thank you for the question. I recognise what you say about the profile of GPs in a range of different communities, including across north Wales. That’s why it’s important that we have new models of care that actually provide the sort of care people will want, and that new GPs will want to go into, because there is a change in the way that we provide the service and how people expect to work. That’s why part of what I’m looking at is the exposure that doctors have in training to primary care at an earlier stage, because there’s good evidence and logic to say that, if that happens, people are more likely to want to opt in to a career in primary care as well. That has the support, again, of our key stakeholders, as something for us to look at.

In terms of your point about a new medical school, I recognise why the Member would want to make a bid for a new medical school in her constituency, and I recognise the real interest there is in this particular area. What I’ve said, and what I will do, is I’ll look at the case for a new medical school. I’ve asked officials to do some work on what that might or might not look like, because if the evidence is there that it’s something we could do and it would deliver on what we want it to—that it would recruit people, and that it would help us—then I’m interested in seeing what that means and how we could achieve that. I also want to see what currently exists with the clinical school and the arrangements for training in north Wales, even if there is not a new medical school. So, I will be guided by, practically, what we can do and what we should do to ensure that we more doctors in training and more doctors who are interested in working in the various different parts of Wales, including the position you described in north Wales.