Part of 1. 1. Questions to the First Minister – in the Senedd at 2:04 pm on 26 September 2017.
Well, of course, it is a matter for the health board, but they have a duty to recruit and they are still attempting to do so. Is he asking whether things should revert to what they used to be? Well, no, because that is not what the report states; I don’t think there would be an improvement in services at all. It’s true to say that there have been problems regarding recruitment in hospitals over the years, going back decades now. The further west you go, the fewer training hospitals you have. That is why it is vital to ensure that when specialists go to hospitals in west Wales they feel part of a larger network so that they have that professional support. That’s what’s happening, of course, through the links that they have in Morriston in the west, and in the north with some of Liverpool’s hospitals. But may I tell him once again that the current situation in Withybush hospital is temporary, not permanent?