Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 5:24 pm on 17 May 2017.
Thank you very much to you all for your comments. I thank Mark Isherwood for presenting a number of arguments, and I do agree—yes, we do need to work jointly across north Wales and with Liverpool and Manchester, and whoever wants to work with us to improve the situation. Lee Waters mentioned problems in the Hywel Dda board area, but don’t blame the health boards only. Workforce planning is the responsibility of your Government, and the lack of planning by you has created some of the problems that you face in your area. As you mentioned, I am talking as the Member for Arfon—yes, and of course I would be arguing for locating a new national institution in my constituency. But I’m also convinced that a third medical school, in Bangor, would improve care services for everyone across the north and across rural areas in Wales.
Last week, I published this—’Tackling the Crisis: a new medical school for Wales’, an independent report that brings the evidence from different countries and the arguments all together. I genuinely hope that you have an opportunity to read it. It does set out the case clearly and robustly that the medical school is needed here. So, I do hope, as the Cabinet Secretary has mentioned, that we will have an announcement soon about this, and I greatly hope that that announcement will be a positive one—the Cabinet Secretary has read it; thank you for that—but that we have a positive announcement soon, stating clearly that there is the need for the medical school and that you as a Government are going to plan, in a detailed way, for that very soon. Thank you very much.