8. Welsh Conservatives Debate: The health and social care workforce

Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 6:09 pm on 20 June 2018.

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Photo of Mark Isherwood Mark Isherwood Conservative 6:09, 20 June 2018

Diolch. Well, thanks very much, everybody, for contributing, and to Angela Burns for opening the debate—her tribute to the immense contribution made by the health and social services workforce in the seventieth year of the NHS. As she said, even the NHS is not beyond challenge and improvement. Caroline Jones said that the situation was made worse by a lack of future planning, putting the workforce under considerable strain. Rhun ap Iorwerth rightly called for medical education to be provided in Bangor. I'd just add that we also need action on the calls by the north Wales local medical committee to incorporate connections with Liverpool and Manchester medical schools, and restore the supply of new and young doctors from there, many of whom will be from north Wales originally. We heard from him about Welsh Government contempt in not publishing the number of Welsh language speakers in the NHS, and his highlighting that Wales has the lowest level of GP training places per 100,000 patients amongst all UK nations. 

Suzy Davies said we're losing care workers. We need to know how many are experiencing mental health problems. We need to show that social care has equal value with healthcare careers, and for leadership and integrated services. Dr Dai Lloyd—we need the same level of respect for people working in care services as in the NHS, and he talked about the pressures on junior doctors and the risk of losing them if we don't address that. Mohammad Asghar—the pressures of patient numbers rising and an ageing population, and he talked about the importance of a free health service being available to everyone and the envy of the world that our NHS is, and he celebrated the UK Government's relaxation of immigration rules to recruit and retain doctors and nurses.

Mark Reckless told us about his family connections, coming from a family of doctors and nurses, about the UK Government's announcement of a 3.4 per cent real-terms increase in funding for the NHS annually, which compares to the 2.2 per cent committed to by Labour at the last UK general election. It equates to £1.2 billion more for the Welsh Government, so we need to see a clear commitment from the Welsh Government to investing that in our NHS and social care services.

The Cabinet Secretary provided the normal combination of the same old, same old 'long-term vision' and 'we want to sees'. I won't debate the austerity issue other than to point out that, under Labour, Wales has been the only UK nation to see a real-terms decrease in identifiable expenditure on health. You caused austerity, your policies would make it worse, but even with the money you've had, you're the only Government anywhere in the UK to have ever cut the NHS in real terms.

The Royal College of General Practitioners tell us that almost one in three Welsh GPs are so stressed they feel they can't cope at least once a week. There's been an increase in newly qualified social workers, but 9 per cent of all social worker posts are vacant, a figure increasing every year. The latest Nursing and Midwifery Council figures say that although nursing and midwife register numbers are at the highest level for five years, the number leaving the register outstrips those joining.