Part of 2. Questions to the Minister for Health and Social Services – in the Senedd at 2:45 pm on 9 June 2021.
Well, I'm sure the Member will be aware that the Welsh Government has already produced a workforce strategy on health, working closely with Health Education and Improvement Wales to identify where the gaps are in relation to where we really need to focus our efforts, and there's been a huge amount of work done with that organisation over recent months. On the 12,000 people that we will be recruiting in terms of training, some of that work is already in place and I'm happy to write to the Member with a further breakdown of precisely where we think those are going to be held.FootnoteLink There's a big difference—. There's no point in saying we're going to appoint x number of new doctors—if you haven't got them in the training process, it's all a bit of a waste of time. So, the first thing to happen is that you've got to get them trained and then make the financial commitment to make sure that they can be given a job at the end of that process.
Obviously, we're very concerned about making sure that we stick to the staffing levels that we've set down in law, of course, and you will be aware that we have done a lot in this Government to ensure that we are doing all we can to produce our own local people. So, the nurse bursary, for example, is something that we kept in the Labour Party in Wales, and I'm afraid that the Westminster Parliament under, I'm afraid, your Government, the Conservative Party, decided to withdraw that support.