Part of 2. 1. Questions to the First Minister – in the Senedd at 1:52 pm on 4 October 2016.
If it was thought that offering him a welcome, if he chose to live in Wales, was the mark of an extremist, then I apologise in that regard, but he is nevertheless welcome to live in our country if he so chooses to do so. But one thing I can say to him is: we need doctors. There is no health service anywhere in the developed world that doesn’t recruit doctors from other countries. The reality is a quarter of our medical staff come from overseas, and the message that’s been given today is, ‘If you’re not from the UK, don’t come to the UK, you’re not welcome, because if you get a job you’ll lose that job as soon as somebody else comes forward, even though it might take 10 or 15 years to do so’. We will continue to recruit good doctors for the health service in Wales whilst others try to create a situation where fewer and fewer doctors are available to treat our people.