Plaid Cymru health spokesman
WALES needs to train more doctors – fact.
All over the country we are struggling to recruit enough GPs, our hospital staff are stretched to the limits, and medical training places lie empty.
It is a long-established fact that Wales faces a GP recruitment crisis. Every week I hear new concerns.
This week it’s been Tonyrefail, near Pontypridd. Recently Llanelli’s problems were brought to my attention.
The problem is greatest when we talk about recruiting GPs in rural areas, and recruiting Welsh-speaking GPs.
This was demonstrated most recently when patients in Penygroes near Caernarfon were told that they would no longer be able to receive GP services in Welsh.
There are several possible approaches to addressing this shortage. We must recruit more doctors from elsewhere.
We must also try to retain the skills we already have, rather than see more and more retire early because of the pressures they face.
With other countries also struggling with doctor recruitment, and competing for those skills, increasing home-grown training is the made-in-Wales solution.
As a consultant physician stated in a recent Royal College of Physicians report: “recruitment problems are threatening the existence of many hospitals and general practices in Wales. We need to train more doctors and nurses in Wales with the aim of retaining them to work here.”
So I was dismayed when the Welsh Government announced that it was shelving plans to establish a Bangor medical school.
In a statement lacking any detail, the Welsh Government said last week that instead of pursuing a medical school based at Bangor University, it would ensure that students training at other Welsh medical schools “will spend more time in north Wales”.
This simply isn’t good enough. Let me be clear. A bespoke Bangor University Medical School cannot be set up overnight.
What we need is undergraduate medical education at Bangor in the short term, in partnership with Cardiff and/or Swansea Universities (both are keen to develop this), developing over time into its own medical school.
Keele University did it, with students originally given Manchester University medical degrees. Keele is now a med school.
We can also look at very different models to the traditional medical school model, with the focus on working in north and west Wales communities.
It should develop as a centre for the teaching of – and research into – rural healthcare delivery.
But Welsh Government has appeared to shut the door on this. Why?
Wales and the Welsh NHS needs this ambition in place and a timescale to deliver it. We know that doctors who train in an area are more likely to stay in that area to work, so to encourage trainee doctors to spend “more time” in an area while they are based elsewhere isn’t the answer.
We know that experts want to see a medical school in Bangor, and the project has cross-party support.
The Welsh Government’s lack of ambition in pursuing the project is a major setback.