2. Will the First Minister make a statement on plans for a medical school for north Wales? OAQ(5)0562(FM)[W]

Work is ongoing to determine the appropriate approach to ensuring sustainable medical education and training within north Wales. The Cabinet Secretary for Health, Well-being and Sport will be making a statement in the coming weeks.

The case for a medical school to serve north Wales, and rural areas of our nation, is clear and robust. The Betsi Cadwaladr University Local Health Board will have spent over £21 million on employing agency medical staff over the past 11 months up until the end of February this year. And the Royal College of Physicians summarises the situation in one sentence:

Yn syml, nid oes digon o feddygon allan yna.

The establishment of a medical school in Bangor would be part of the process of training these additional doctors that we need in Wales. So, when exactly will the business case be published, and when will the necessary steps to establish the medical school be put in place?

As I said, there will be a statement over the ensuing weeks, and the Minister will be considering this over this week and the next. So, a statement will be made soon. But it’s vitally important that we ensure that any plans are ultimately sustainable, and that is part of the consideration being given to this issue.

It’s many years since I first discussed the need for a Bangor medical school with its previous vice-chancellor, and I have continued to have those discussions since. It’s three years since the North Wales Local Medical Committee warned, at a meeting in the Assembly, that general practice in north Wales was, in their words, facing crisis, unable to fill vacancies, with GPs considering retirement. And they highlighted the fact that the previous supply from Liverpool medical school had largely been severed, where their generation had primarily come from. In considering that you have agreed to do the business case for a new medical school in Bangor, how will you ensure that that includes dialogue with Liverpool, alongside Bangor, to ensure that we keep local medics local?

Well, the issue is, of course, that Bangor is in an area where the population is quite small, compared to other centres where there is a medical school. So, there are issues in terms of how such a medical school could work closely with other medical schools—in Wales, or in England, or elsewhere, for that matter. What’s hugely important is that any medical school is sustainable, and that it works closely with others in order to ensure that sustainability is there in the future.

Graduates will come back to work in Wales if they have the desire and ability to do so. Does the First Minister agree that the Government needs also to look further at ways it can improve the life offer for the people of north Wales, as this flight of talent illustrates that, too often, those who move out of Wales to train or work often do so permanently?

Well, the campaign that we have in place to recruit medical staff is working well. We’ve had a great deal of interest from those in all areas of medicine. Ultimately, lifestyle is important for people, but professional challenge is important. People want to go somewhere where they will find their work interesting, where they feel they will be challenged from a medical point of view, and, of course, they want to live somewhere they feel they are supported. The campaign that we’ve put in place has outlined all these issues to potential medical practitioners who wish to come to Wales, and the response has been encouraging.