Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 4:56 pm on 17 May 2017.
Thank you very much, and it’s a pleasure for me to move this motion. A lack of doctors in north Wales and rural areas in Wales creates a huge challenge for healthcare services. It would be possible to tackle the problem in the short term, but we also need to move forward to plan for permanent, long-term solutions. We need to train more doctors in north Wales, the area that has the greatest shortage. This is one way to tackle the crisis in a sensible and permanent way. Last year, half of consultant posts in north Wales weren’t filled—half those posts were unfilled—and the implications of that are far reaching.