8. What action is the First Minister taking to improve health services in North Wales? OQ56795

Llywydd, amongst the actions taken to improve health services in north Wales will be the opening of a new north Wales medical school in Bangor. The health Minister intends to update Members on this development early in the autumn.

Thank you, First Minister. I certainly welcome that investment in the medical school in Bangor. I'm sure you'd also agree that having the right facilities throughout the region and the country is an important factor in ensuring that quality healthcare is provided. And if we were to look at the investment in facilities over the past five years, there is a significant gap between what is being spent in north Wales and what is being spent in the south. On a per capita basis, spend in north Wales, in my region, is around half of that for some parts of south Wales. And this has been during a time in which the health board has been in special measures as well. So, why do you think there's such a gap and what will you do to bridge this gap?

Well, fortunately, Llywydd, I have the figures for the last five years in front of me here. In the first of those years, more capital expenditure took place in Betsi Cadwaladr than any other health board in the whole of Wales. And in the second of those five years, the pattern was the same again: £73 million of capital investment in Betsi Cadwaladr, and in second place Aneurin Bevan, with £50 million—£23 million more in Betsi Cadwaladr than in any other part of Wales. And the answer is obvious, isn't it—it's that capital expenditure is cyclical. During those years, there was major investment in Ysbyty Glan Clwyd in the Member's constituency—[Interruption.]—the Member who is offering me his advice. In his constituency, there was major investment in that hospital; it was absolutely right that, in those two years, more money was spent in north Wales than anywhere else. At other parts in the cycle, there will be major investments in other parts of Wales. So, in the last three years, there have been investments in the south-east of Wales—that's just the nature of capital expenditure.

Let me put another point to the Member—and to other north Wales Members from his party. So, in this year, north Wales has 22 per cent of the population, and, in revenue terms, it will have 23 per cent of the expenditure of the national health service. The logical corollary of his question is that we should reduce that revenue expenditure to bring it in line with the population share. I don't suppose that is what he would be suggesting, and it's not what we are suggesting either. But just as we spend more per head in north Wales in revenue terms, in some years we spend more in capital, and in other parts of Wales there will be times when there are investments needed there, which will temporarily put them in a different place in that league.

Thank you, First Minister.