Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 3:46 pm on 24 November 2020.
I'd like to thank the Member for the three specific areas of questions. I'll deal with them in reverse order. On general practice, and Saltney that he mentioned in particular, there's good news in that every scheme in north Wales for GP training has recruited or over-recruited to its capacity, so we're attracting people to work right across the whole country. It's good news for the whole of Wales, including north Wales. We did have some particular challenges at the start of our work on ‘Train. Work. Live.’ to get people to take up the training places in north Wales. We're now in a position where we've got this surplus, which is a really good position to be in in terms of our normal places, but we want to keep all of those people that do their training in north Wales, because we do want to see people seeing north Wales as an attractive place to train, work and live. And if the Member wants a specific conversation on Saltney or other areas in his constituency, then I can happily arrange that both with the health board and/or myself, and I'll look forward to hearing from his office further to see how he wants to take that forward.
On elective capacity, as with the whole of Wales, there has been a particular challenge. North Wales has a bigger challenge than other parts of Wales on elective and planned care, partly because of the way in which normal healthcare takes place, and he will know this, having a border constituency. A number of people are used to, as part of their healthcare, travelling over the border. In the future, we can be confident that the English system will have a huge catch-up in terms of its elective capacity as well. We're unlikely to see lots of planned care capacity within the English system. That's why the orthopaedic challenge that I set out and the funding we're providing is even more important, to have a more sustained position for planned surgery—orthopaedic and others—within north Wales as far as possible, as well as the conversation we need to have about regular healthcare across the border.
And on mental health, there is a particular concern that I've highlighted in my statement—again, because there has been progress on mental health, but there's definitely more to go. And so the 'Together for Mental Health in North Wales' strategy that has been designed with service users in north Wales—it's really important to see that transformation continue, and that will be a particular concern that we'll be looking for further reassurance and progress on in the targeted intervention arrangements that are in place. So, I want to reassure the Member and everyone else watching that mental health is very much in our minds—again, about the unfinished improvement journey that is still required. But undeniably, mental health services in north Wales are in a better place now than when the organisation was placed into special measures five years ago.