Part of 2. 2. Questions to the Cabinet Secretary for Health, Well-being and Sport – in the Senedd at 2:48 pm on 5 October 2016.
Doctor shortages affect all areas throughout the country, as we’ve already heard, but, in the Rhondda, we’ve got a particularly acute problem, which has led to Cwm Taf university health board setting up a website specifically to attract doctors to our area. Even though you are still in denial as to what the statistics say, as we saw just now in your answer to my colleague, Rhun ap Iorwerth, the number of hospital doctors employed by Cwm Taf declined by 44 between 2014 and 2015, which is, of course, the last date when we have figures available. This is a staggering loss for just one year. The number of hospital doctors employed by Cwm Taf is now lower than it was in 2009. You’ve said previously that this is a record number of doctors. Is this what a record number of doctors looks like in the Rhondda? Do you now regret making that statement to me earlier on this summer, or are you still in denial?