Questions Without Notice from Party Spokespeople

Part of 2. Questions to the Cabinet Secretary for Health and Social Services — Postponed from 8 November – in the Senedd at 2:37 pm on 15 November 2017.

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Photo of Rhun ap Iorwerth Rhun ap Iorwerth Plaid Cymru 2:37, 15 November 2017

Okay. I didn't hear a number there. We're sitting quite close to each other; I'd have thought you would have heard that I asked specifically about doctors, not other health professionals, in this particular question. And thank you very much for pointing out the fact that doctors do play an important role within the NHS. If it is the case that you don't know how many additional doctors specifically we're going to need, it's no wonder that we are facing such a workforce planning crisis here in Wales. I was prepared to admit perhaps we'd got it wrong and that we need far more than 1,000 doctors. We need a minimum of 1,000. We need a minimum of 5,000 nurses. We have shortages, you're quite right, across the workforce. That's why we need to increase student numbers across the NHS workforce, why we need a new centre for medical training in Bangor, why dentists and pharmacists, incidentally, are saying to me 'Can we have some more training places in the north too, because we need them?' Figures published by the BBC last month showed that in this financial year we're seeing more people leave the NHS than are joining, leaving us with around 150—250, excuse me—fewer staff. Will you admit that we're going backwards?