6. Will the Minister provide an update on the medical training that is available in the north Wales medical school? OQ58186

Thank you. At present, the C21 north Wales medical training programme at Bangor University is delivered in collaboration with Cardiff University. This initiative was introduced to reflect the Welsh Government’s commitment to deliver medical training in north Wales, and it will form the basis of the curriculum of the north Wales medical school.

Thank you very much for that update, and I look forward to seeing the medical school receiving a brand new centre in the middle of the city of Bangor in due course, which will be able to contribute to the regeneration of the high street in the city.

Your Government's strategy, 'More than just words', emphasises that having care in your first language is vital to the quality of that care. This is true for monolingual Welsh-speaking young children who haven't yet acquired English, and it's also true for adults who have lost the use of their second language. So, can you therefore explain to me how the Bangor medical school will contribute to this work of producing bilingual doctors? Will you outline your expectations in terms of recruiting bilingual students to be trained in the north Wales medical school? And what targets, what quotas, will be required and will have to be introduced by the two universities that are a part of this project?

Thank you very much. Well, certainly I'm very eager to see 'More than just words' continuing and evolving and becoming more aggressive in terms of what we expect to see from the health boards in terms of provision. In terms of quality of care for young children and those who are monolingual Welsh speakers or more comfortable through the medium of Welsh, then, of course, the quality of care would be altered if that service were provided through the medium of English, if they weren't able to access it in their first language.

I brought this question up recently in terms of recruitment at the Cardiff medical school—and of course they do work very closely with Bangor at the moment—and what was interesting was how many additional people are now recruited from Wales as compared to the situation in the past. What's important is that these people reach the expected standards, never mind which language they speak, and it's important that we maintain those high standards. But, certainly, this is something that they do see as being important. One of the things that I saw when I was Minister for the Welsh language was tutoring provided through the medium of Welsh to a group not only of Welsh speakers but non-Welsh speakers and international students too. It was wonderful to see that happen. I think it was Rhun's sister who was giving that lecture. I do think that that demonstrates that it is possible to provide these lectures and to provide the training through the medium of Welsh too, and I do very much hope that that will attract more people to the study of medicine. I'm pleased to see that there is more recruitment happening in Wales. That has improved a great deal in recent years.