Thank you, Deputy Presiding Officer. I’m pleased to move the Welsh Conservative debate motion tabled in the name of my colleague, Paul Davies, in which we ask the National Assembly to note that the retention of the front-line workforce is a major challenge facing the NHS in Wales. We ask the Welsh Government to outline its response to the recent increases in the number of vacancies for doctors in the Welsh NHS, and to implement a clear, comprehensive strategy that outlines how the Welsh Government will prioritise front-line staff recruitment and retention.

We also ask that the National Assembly recognises that stress-related illnesses are increasingly responsible for ambulance service staff being absent from work, and the impact this could have on the longer term recruitment and retention of staff. Additionally, given the stark figures on stress-related illness within the ambulance service, we would like to understand how the Welsh Government will address the issues pertaining to low staff morale during the course of the fifth Assembly. Front-line services, especially general practice, are facing a perfect storm. A combination of events, decisions and circumstance, each individually manageable, are combining to create an unprecedented situation where the service is struggling to deliver timely and comprehensive care to the public in a great number of areas. The rising tide of ill health bearing down upon front-line services is creating an enormous tension in general practice. There has been a substantial increase in the numbers of people seeking treatment.

The Welsh health survey, published in June, showed that 51 per cent of people in Wales are battling an illness, incidences of high blood pressure have risen to 20 per cent of the population, respiratory illness to 14 per cent, and mental ill health to just over 4 per cent— all of which place an increasing strain on general practice. Worryingly, people’s perception of their health has also dipped, with one in five people considering themselves in poor health. We must also bear in mind, when discussing extra pressures, that Wales has a far greater proportion of people aged 85 plus, compared to the rest of the UK. With people living longer we are seeing an increase in the rates of age-related illnesses such as dementia and some forms of cancer.

A case in point would be the rise in cancer diagnosis. Cancer cases, as a whole, were up by 14 per cent over the last 10 years, with the biggest rise being seen among women aged 65 to 69. Lung cancer incidences in women alone have risen by 57 per cent. Another example would be diabetes. Since 1996 the number of people living with diabetes has doubled in Wales: 8 per cent of the population now have either type 1 or type 2 diabetes, and estimates show that a staggering 540,000 people in Wales are at risk of getting type 2 diabetes. Furthermore, it is estimated that diabetes accounts for 10 per cent of the annual NHS Wales budget, but 80 per cent of that funding is spent on managing complications, most of which could be prevented.

As a nation, our rates of physical activity should also be considered in any discussion on our collective health. Physically inactive individuals spend, on average, 38 per cent more days in hospital; they make 5.5 per cent more GP visits, access 13 per cent more specialist services, and make 12 per cent more nurse visits than active individuals. Inactivity is a hidden killer, contributing to one in six deaths in the UK—the same level as smoking. However, more than one in three people in Wales are inactive, failing to be active for more than 30 minutes a week.

There also needs to be a far greater acceptance that many of the causes of ill health are social rather than medical in origin. I use the word ‘acceptance’ very carefully because I think there is a recognition that much of that which ails people stems from social causes; however, acceptance that it is the job of a system based on a medical model to deal with perceived social ills is not embraced in all quarters.

To illustrate my point, in a recent meeting with practising doctors, one said that listening to socially inept women crying because their boyfriends had left was creating pressures on their time. If we can accept that crying people might be there because they are depressed and need counselling, and we can put them in touch with counsellors, then I would argue that that is primary care at its best and how we need to shape it. Primary care has the opportunity to halt sadness from becoming depression; from becoming despair; becoming too much drink or drugs; and becoming long-term ill health and incapacity. Whether it’s social or medical, the increase in people seeking help compounds the pressures on general practices that are already struggling with the growing change in the demographic of doctors within general practice. Granted, the headcount for GPs—