Part of 2. 2. Questions to the Cabinet Secretary for Health, Well-being and Sport – in the Senedd at 2:30 pm on 7 December 2016.
Well, the point about the recruitment to the medical workforce are challenges, as you know, across the UK system. Here in Wales, we’re certainly not immune to those challenges, and they vary slightly, but often we see exactly the same challenges in every nation within the UK. So, that’s why our strategy on recruitment and retention is important and that’s why it’s allied to training within Wales and, indeed, encouraging people to come to us to see about the whole package. So, training looks at all those different factors.
But it always goes back to comments I’ve made before, and I’ll make again, about needing to understand what are attractive models of care for people to come to. For example, in Aneurin Bevan, following the reconfiguration of their stroke services, which was difficult—not everyone wanted to see stroke services centralised into a specialised centre—actually we’ve seen outcomes improve for patients. We’ve also made it easier to recruit consultant staff into that new and up-to-date model of care. So, there’s a range of different things that we need to balance.
And part of what we have to do is not just to have an ambition from the Government, but we have to listen to people within the service and work alongside them in understanding how we make Wales a more attractive place for people to come to live in and to work, and what we then need to do for the training and the wider support around that. I also think that the creation of Health Education Wales will put us in a better position to have that broad, strategic overview, to make sure that we have the very best prospects to encourage and recruit and retain all of the staff we need to run a high-quality, modern healthcare system.