Questions Without Notice from the Party Leaders

Part of 1. Questions to the First Minister – in the Senedd at 1:47 pm on 6 December 2022.

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Photo of Mark Drakeford Mark Drakeford Labour 1:47, 6 December 2022

Well, Llywydd, I want to distinguish between two things. And I thought it was a brave statement by the new leader of the BMA to recognise that, on many occasions in the past, the word 'crisis' has been used by the BMA, and that has devalued that term. The two things I want to distinguish are these: I absolutely accept the struggle and the stress that there is in the Welsh NHS, that recruitment is difficult in some places and that it's not always an attractive prospect to come in to a service that, day after day, is portrayed in the media and in newspapers as not providing the service that the people who work in it would wish to provide. So, I absolutely do recognise that. But I do think it's worth just putting some facts on the desk as well, because, if you look at medical and dental staff in the Welsh NHS, we have 1,654 more doctors and dentists working in the NHS than we did a decade ago. We have 1,256 more consultants and doctors working than we did five years ago. Of the 966 more medical staff than we had three years ago, 242 of those are consultants, and, Llywydd, I could go on. We have thousands more nurses working in the NHS, thousands more scientific, therapeutic staff working in the NHS. The fastest growth of all has been in ambulance staff working in the Welsh NHS. So, while I am happy to—well, I am not happy, because the situation is so difficult—but while I recognise the points that are being made, that is against the background of year, on year, on year rises. There are more people working in the Welsh NHS in every single category of people—[Interruption.]—and that includes every health board as well.

You see, that's the sort of remark that absolutely does not help, because it is simply not factually the case. [Interruption.] I do. Believe me, I prepare when I come here, and that's why I am able to tell you what I've told you today. Yes, I actually do prepare, and the truth of the matter is, in every part of Wales, the numbers of people working in the NHS have been going up. Does that mean we don't need more? Of course not. Does that mean that recruitment doesn't need attention? Does it mean that we don't need to go on making sure we have more people in training than we've ever had before? All of that is true, but it does give you the background to what the leader of the BMA said about being clear about what is true and what is not true about the state of play in the NHS.