I welcome the opportunity to speak on the report. I’m a member of the committee, and I found this a very important, stimulating report. The Chair already mentioned in his introduction the panel of trainee doctors that we had. I felt that we really did get to grips with some of the key issues that doctors, trainees and students have to address. I particularly enjoyed the visit at the beginning of the report, where we went to Cardiff University and we saw the way that the students learn through practising their medicine on models as a first step. I thought that was a very good introduction to the report.

I just wanted to refer to some of the recommendations in the report. I think it’s pleasing that most of the recommendations are accepted and that there are a few that are partially accepted. Obviously, two of the partially accepted recommendations were about the need for more medical education in north Wales, which Rhun has just referred to. I think it’s obviously good that the Government has accepted the need for an increased level of medical education in north Wales and proposes to do this by collaboration between Cardiff, Swansea and Bangor, albeit saying that there is no case for a new medical school to be established in north Wales. I think it’s particularly important that Health Education and Improvement Wales is being set up, and I hope also that we will get a bit of an update from the Cabinet Secretary when he replies to this debate.

I think the issue of the number of Welsh applicants to Welsh medical schools is one of the key issues that we addressed in our report, and I think we heard endless examples of people who are doctors now who tried to get in to Cardiff University medical school, for example, couldn’t get in there, and went and trained in England and, in some cases, they did come back, the people who were giving us evidence, but we all know that if you train somewhere, you’re more likely to stay there, and I think there is evidence about that.

Certainly, when we interviewed the staff of the medical schools, there certainly appeared to be a great willingness to look at this issue, and the actual figures are improving. I think we were told that 61 per cent of Welsh students who applied to Cardiff University for this year have been offered a place, which is a definite improvement, but we’ve still got the issue that’s been raised that the number of students in Wales applying to go to medical school is much less, as a percentage, than other parts of the UK. So, we do need to do a lot to encourage and to do all the work in schools that has been referred to and make schoolchildren feel that they can be doctors. Because I think that did come out of the evidence as well, that, in many schools, there is maybe a bit of a lack of aspiration, and I think that is something that we feel the medical schools and universities should be working on with the schools.

We had great evidence about how what we have to offer here in Wales is an attraction to trainee doctors and to work in Wales, because of the work-life balance and other lifestyle issues, but it was also raised with us very strongly that there is an issue about rurality and how you attract doctors to actually work in very rural areas. And we did get evidence of projects and pilots that have been done to work particularly in rural areas, and I think that would be something that I wonder whether the Cabinet Secretary, when he responds, could talk about—how we could do more of that.

And then, I’d just like to quickly finish on the Brexit issue. We know that, currently, 7 per cent of the doctors working in Wales come from the EU and that there were 1,354 EU nationals directly employed in the NHS in Wales. But in terms of the doctors, I think we also have to acknowledge that there is a huge number of doctors coming here who have been trained in non-EU countries; in particular, India, which is the biggest group of doctors. I’d like to end, really, by paying tribute to BAPIO, which is the British Association of Physicians of Indian Origin, who have worked very hard to bring Indian doctors here. Very recently, I met them when they’d just come back, and they seemed to have the initiative and the determination to ensure that we do try to keep the non-EU doctors as well coming here to Wales. Thank you.