8. What support is the Welsh Government providing to ambulance workers in South Wales East?  OQ59065

We continue to invest in our NHS workforce to improve experience for patients and staff, including additional funding for extra training places for paramedics and a range of other health professions in 2023-24. This is the ninth consecutive year that health professional education and training budgets have increased in Wales.

Diolch, Trefnydd. Last week, I was proud to stand on the picket line with ambulance workers in Merthyr Tydfil. None of those paramedics and ambulance workers wanted to be on strike—they wanted to be working, because their lives revolve around saving other people's lives. But they felt they had no choice because their pay is going down and the pressure is going up. But, away from pay and conditions, they talked to me about mental health strain, how trauma has become commonplace for them, seeing people dying, and witnessing other people's distress and pain and grief, day in and day out. I was really concerned to hear that the trauma risk management support isn't always enough. One of the paramedics described a truly awful thing that had happened to them on their shift, which involved someone dying, and they somehow didn't qualify for that trauma support. So, could the Welsh Government look urgently again at the support that's offered to the people whose job it is to support us in our most desperate hour of need? How can we make sure that we're giving enough help to the helpers?

Thank you. You raise a very important point. If we think about it, paramedics are often, or usually, the first on the scene when that 999 call is made, and I absolutely understand the point you make. I'm sure the Minister for Health and Social Services will be very happy to look at what more we can do.

And finally, question 9, Rhys ab Owen.