Thank you, to all the NHS staff, for your commitment.

I have a number of questions to ask. One could insist that everything was fine in terms of staffing levels in the NHS in listening to this statement, but I do have a number of issues that I think are important to emphasise and to highlight here. This claim that there’s a record number of staff working in the NHS. We still have fewer GPs working in the NHS in Wales than we had in 2013. StatsWales hasn’t published figures for corresponding numbers of full-time posts for three years, whilst they are looking at the quality of the data. We have fewer hospital doctors than we had in 2014 once you remove that 'general practice doctors in training' category from the figures—something that was added from somewhere to the figures in 2015.

It’s true to say that official figures do show that there are more people working in nursing, midwifery and health visitor roles. It isn’t clear, however, from your statement this afternoon, how many qualified nurses are working—that is to say, fully qualified nurses—within our national health service. And we know from a freedom of information request from the Daily Post recently that 750 fewer nurses are fully qualified in the Betsi Cadwaladr health board than we had five years ago.

And add to that concerns about Brexit, and we haven’t felt the impact of that as of yet, although there is anecdotal evidence about the negative impact it will have. But would you admit that the picture that you painted in your statement is incomplete? Would you also admit that we must give consideration to the full picture, including those negative elements—the problems in terms of workforce planning—rather than just looking at the positives that there undoubtedly are, or we can’t truly get to grips and resolve some of those problems?

In terms of training places, once again you refer to paramedics, nurses and other health professionals in relation to training places. I celebrate any increase in training places, but we can't avoid the difficult question on GP and doctor training specifically. I am very eager to see this Government bringing us a figure as to how many doctors you hope to see trained in Wales in ensuing years, wherever they may be. What is our output to be in terms of the number of doctors trained here?

And that brings us on to plans for a medical centre in Bangor. You’re entirely right in saying that the west is also very important in terms of increasing the numbers trained, but, in terms of Bangor, I’m very pleased now that talk of medical training in Bangor is a central part of any statement on NHS workforce planning. Siân Gwenllian and I are certainly pleased to see that we are gaining ground here, and I’m very confident, having had discussions with Bangor University, that we are moving in the right direction. But, as I always do, I will ask you for a little less ambiguity. You talk about training opportunities; tell us once again that full training will be available in Bangor from year 1 to year 5, because that’s the direction we need to travel in—and I’m confident that we are going in that direction. Also, a bird in the hand may be worth two in the bush, and perhaps I should not just focus on doctors, because I can tell you that there is  pressure already to include dental training in the new centre in Bangor. Again, last week, I was asked about introducing an element of pharmaceutical training in Bangor. So, it’s not just doctors that we’re talking about here, but the whole range of professionals across the health service.

And just very briefly in terms of nursing, can you comment on continuing professional development for nurses specifically? I know it’s something that the RCN is concerned about, namely the lack of time and attention given to CPD. Also, there was no reference in the statement to provisions for the safe staffing levels Bill. Is there a statement on where we are with that?