We've been told by by chiefs at Cwm Taf Morgannwg health board that the accident and emergency department services at the Royal Glamorgan are unsafe because of the lack of permanent consultants. The last one leaves for retirement at the end of March. The same executive board say that an entirely locum-run service is not safe. From a financial point of view, they say it would cost less to employ permanent consultants. I know from reliable sources that there are locum consultants who would be willing to take up posts on a permanent basis if they were offered flexible hours and a slightly improved package. Other boards have increased their numbers of A&E consultants in recent years, yet Cwm Taf hasn't.

Of course, the other obstacle in the way is that, while the centralisation of the A&E element of the south Wales programme remains in place, that uncertainty will remain and those posts will potentially be unattractive. It seems to me and many others, including the staff working for the NHS, that no real effort has been made to recruit permanent posts, and the whole exercise has become a self-fulfilling prophecy.

As the Minister responsible for the Welsh Government's budget monitoring and management, do you share these frustrations about the reliance on expensive locum staff within the NHS, particularly when little effort seems to have been made in recent years to provide those permanent posts?