This inquiry was worth while, and I thank the Chair and my fellow Members and the clerks and the research team. We started from a point where we knew there was a problem, of course, that medical recruitment was a barrier to the NHS delivering its functions, but what we have now, I think, is a valuable document—a very comprehensive document—asking why, and what we can do to try and overcome some of those barriers. It’s also worth noting that at a time when we know that there is more and more pressure on NHS funding, we’re not necessarily asking for things that are going to cost more. In the long term I would argue that savings could be made by sorting out recruitment problems within the health service. Certainly, ensuring that we provide sufficient numbers of staff and rely less on agency staff would bring savings in its wake, so we’re not necessarily asking for further investment in the longer term.

I will look at some of the most crucial recommendations as I see them. First of all, increasing the number of Welsh-domiciled students studying medicine in Wales. I don’t need to explain why this is important, I’m sure, but too few students from Wales are now applying to study medicine and too many of those fail to secure places to study in Wales. We must increase the percentage of students under the current regime who are domiciled in Wales, because, quite simply, they are the most likely to remain here to work once they have qualified. And we must, surely, remember that the main purpose of training doctors in Wales is to provide staff for the NHS in Wales. But we must also increase the number of training places. We could make increases in Cardiff and Swansea, and I very much hope that we do make those increases in Cardiff and Swansea.

But there are opportunities to innovate here too, and recommendation 5 clearly calls for a medical education centre in Bangor. There are so many reasons for that: linguistically, geographically, economically even, in terms of increasing opportunities for students from north Wales to study in their own areas, and also in terms of developing expertise in providing rural healthcare and to do that bilingually. It would provide firmer foundations for the health provision for the residents of that area, making it easier to recruit doctors who want to be involved in lecturing or research work. So, you can imagine my disappointment when the Cabinet Secretary said in July that there was no case for having a medical school in Bangor and that placing students in north Wales was the way forward.

First of all, the committee isn’t asking for a medical school. I, through Plaid Cymru—and I make this clear—am not asking for a full medical school. It may come in due time, of course, but that is something that would take years. But, with collaboration between the Government, the deanery and its successor, Bangor University, Cardiff University and Swansea and some over the border—why not—there is no barrier to taking the first steps towards providing a full course for undergraduates based in Bangor and to move towards that, if not to achieve that tomorrow, but certainly to move towards that immediately. My concern—and I’m sure that many will share this concern—is that if the Government can be so heedless of the thorough work done by the committee and the clear evidence that we’ve received on the need for this, what confidence can we have in the Government to innovate and to be ambitious in relation to the rest of the recommendations?

Yma, mae gennym alwad gyda thystiolaeth dda yn sail iddi dros sefydlu canolfan addysg feddygol newydd ym Mangor. Wrth gwrs bydd yna rwystrau, ond ni fydd y rhwystrau hynny’n cael eu goresgyn cyhyd â bod y Llywodraeth hon yn ymddangos yn amharod i wthio ffiniau’r hyn sy’n bosibl. Yn yr adroddiad hwn, mae gennym ddarlun sy’n peri llawer o bryder—gadewch i ni fod yn onest—o ble rydym gyda hyfforddiant a recriwtio meddygol yng Nghymru. Ond nid yw’r pwyllgor yn dod i’r casgliad wedyn na ellir goresgyn y problemau hynny. Rydym yn cynnig atebion—amherffaith, yn ddiau—ond rydym yn eu gweld fel her. O ran arfogi ein GIG yn y dyfodol gyda digon o feddygon, o ran mynd i’r afael â nifer y swyddi gwag meddygol sydd gennym ledled Cymru, a sut i ennyn brwdfrydedd disgyblion, grymuso ein pobl ifanc i anelu at fod yn feddygon sy’n gweithio yn eu cymunedau ar hyd a lled Cymru, a’u helpu i allu astudio yma os ydynt yn dymuno gwneud hynny, mae angen i gleifion yng Nghymru wybod bod y gwaith yn cael ei wneud. Mae angen i ni weld hynny gan Lywodraeth Cymru. Mae angen i ni ei weld yn fuan.