Part of 1. Questions to the Minister for Health and Social Services – in the Senedd at 1:53 pm on 11 May 2022.
Thank you very much. Certainly, Brexit hasn't assisted the situation in terms of the number of nurses working in our communities and in our hospitals. Of course, we would prefer to see people working full time for the NHS and not working for agencies, so we do have to continually strive to improve that situation, and the way to do that is to ensure that there are more people within the NHS. But the trouble is, of course, when people fall ill—and many nurses are becoming ill because of COVID—then you do have to call on agency nurses too. I'm sure you'll be pleased to hear that there will be an announcement tomorrow on international nurse recruitment. Certainly, I am highly aware of the RCN's demands, and we have regular discussions with them, and this is an issue that is raised on all occasions I meet with them. Clearly, we've made it clear to them what we think needs to be done in this area before we move to the next phase.