It's no secret that we in Plaid Cymru believe that the first step to create the foundations for a sustainable NHS is to pay workers fairly. The First Minister recently claimed that making an improved pay offer would mean taking away money from health, but that's such a false way of looking at the situation, because providing a credible and substantive—not a one-off, but a credible and substantive—pay award for NHS workers surely is the best possible investment that we could be making in creating a more sustainable and resilient health service. They're tough choices; of course they're tough choices. But this particular choice simply has to be made. I used the word 'foundations'. The foundations of the NHS currently are pretty unfirm. Those foundations are the workers. We need to firm up those foundations if we're to build a resilient NHS. That has to be step one. 

The second step in our plan is to address issues on workforce retention. Pay is one big part of workforce planning, but there's that wider issue. We need a wider strategy to retain the talented workforce at our disposal by making the NHS in Wales a more attractive and appealing place to work—3,000 NHS vacancies in Wales; 46 per cent of medical students in Wales relocating to England because they've got more foundation posts available. Now, the Government says that they have a workforce plan on the way, but a plan's nothing unless it's delivered, and we need a clear delivery strategy with targets and full costings for that new NHS workforce plan, and one that actually accurately reflects the needs—which is why we talk about the need for data on where exactly we do stand and where those vacancies are. We need clearly definable delivery metrics. 

We've got to ensure that opportunities for career development are more available, encouraging medical students studying in Welsh universities to stay in Wales, encouraging people and helping them through continuous professional development to be able to work at the top of their competence. These are the things that lead when they're not done well to people deciding, 'You know what, this career is really not what I thought it would be; I'm not able to push myself to my limits', and the failure to deliver on these bare essentials are holding back the NHS.