Part of 2. Questions to the Minister for Health and Social Services – in the Senedd at 2:47 pm on 6 February 2019.
Actually, we know that for a significant part not just of Wales, but across the United Kingdom, some centres are more easy to attract and recruit to than others in different parts of the country. You don't need to take my word for it; go and talk to people who work in those other parts of the health service about the relative ease or difficulty of doing so. Cardiff and Vale, and other parts of the south-east corner, have had a more stable way of delivering and transforming their care. There is a different job of work to be done, for example, in west Wales and in north Wales in transforming the way that care is delivered. If we're unable to do so, then we'll continue to prop up parts of our service with agency and locum and higher spend. That's the unavoidable reality of where we are. So, if Members want to see genuinely a reduction in agency and locum spend, then we all need to have a grown-up conversation about where that care is delivered, to make it a more attractive place for staff to work. If we can't do that, we'll continue to either prop up parts of our service with agency and locum spend, or see those reform and change at a point of crisis, rather than deliberately planning to do so. That was one of the central messages of 'A Healthier Wales' and, indeed, the parliamentary review that every party in this Chamber signed up to.