Part of 1. Questions to the First Minister – in the Senedd at 2:19 pm on 20 March 2018.
First Minister, doctor training rates are lower in Wales than in England or in Scotland. All of the organisations—the British Medical Association, the Royal College of General Practitioners and the Royal College of Physicians—have all been supporting calls for an expansion of doctor numbers in Wales. Now, we can't rely on other countries to train our doctors. We lose enough talent as it is, and by increasing capacity in England, the UK Government and the English NHS will attract even more of our future Welsh doctors. We have fewer GPs now than in 2013. We have fewer hospital doctors now than in 2014. So, the claim that you sometimes make about record numbers of health staff includes nursing assistants, it includes admin staff and it hides the fact that we are down on the number of doctors. Now, Plaid Cymru would commit to training and recruiting 1,000 new doctors for the Welsh NHS. Other countries are pressing ahead with plans to expand training places. Even Jeremy Hunt is doing it. It seems that the universities are keen. Why is Wales, under this Labour Government, lagging so far behind?