1. Will the Cabinet Secretary make a statement on medical education in north Wales? (OAQ51097)[W]

Thank you, Rhun. The Cabinet Secretary for Health, Well-being and Sport issued a statement in July about medical education and training in north Wales, which recognised the need for increased medical education in the area. Our ambition is to achieve this through a collaborative approach based upon Cardiff, Swansea and Bangor universities working more closely together.

Thank you. I do understand that I have been asking questions of the Cabinet Secretary for Health, Well-being and Sport on medical education to date, but it’s good to ask a question to you as the Cabinet Secretary for Education today. Now that the pre-budget agreement has secured development funding for undergraduate medical education in Bangor, will you, as the education Secretary, tell us what sort of work programme you would want to see put in place in order to start to build towards the introduction of a full undergraduate course in Bangor for medical students based in Bangor University working in partnership with another medical school or medical schools, in addition to the steps that can happen immediately in terms of securing further placements for students in north Wales?

Like you, Rhun, I am pleased that we’ve been able to agree funding of £7 million in next year’s budget to support our plans for the development of undergraduate medical education in north Wales. The health Secretary gave a commitment to update Assembly Members in the autumn, and that remains the position, but I can tell you that officials are working with the three institutions to progress the proposal and to identify the practical steps required to make it happen. Officials most recently met with Cardiff, Swansea and Bangor, together with the deanery, on 21 September.

There’s been no increase in the full-time equivalent number of GPs in north Wales in a decade, despite increased population and trebling in GP contracts, and the number of GP training places in north Wales has been at a historic low now for a decade. The north Wales local medical committee, in the Assembly three years ago, called for contact to be re-established with Liverpool medical school, where many of them had come from to work in north Wales and had been trained here as young doctors. And when I raised this with the First Minister, he said that it’s hugely important that any medical school works closely with others in order to ensure that sustainability is there in the future. How, therefore, do you respond to continuing calls by GPs in the north Wales local medical committee for the solutions that you propose to incorporate strengthened connections with Liverpool and Manchester in terms of the supply of new and young doctors into the north Wales region?

I thank Mark for his question, but postgraduate medical education is not a matter for my portfolio, but for my Cabinet colleague the Cabinet Secretary for health. But I’m always very keen that Welsh universities and institutions look to collaborate wherever they can, whether that be within Wales or outside of Wales.

Cabinet Secretary, as we discovered in the health committee, young people in Wales who study medicine in Wales are more likely to stay in Wales, which is why it is vitally important that we improve medical education opportunities in north Wales. Not only do we have a shortage of doctors and nurses in Wales, but we also have a massive shortage of radiologists. Cabinet Secretary, what is your Government doing to encourage more young people to consider a career in medical diagnostics, and what are you going to do to increase the number of training places and opportunities in radiology?

The Member makes a very valid point, and, from the time that I was on the health committee, which I enjoyed greatly, issues around medical diagnostics are, of course, crucial if we’re to tackle issues around waiting times for those tests. I and the Cabinet Secretary for health continue to work closely across Government to ensure that we are supporting both medical education and professions allied to medicine, and we invest more than £350 million each year, supporting more than 15,000 students and trainees through their education and training in a range of healthcare professions across Wales, including, as I said, both doctors and other professions.