Rhun ap Iorwerth is Plaid Cymru’s health spokesman

TEENAGERS all over Wales received their A-level results last week.

It is one of those important junctures in life that help young people make choices about their future.

Many will have been given the green light to pursue a career in medicine, and I wish them well. Others may have fallen just short, but I hope they stick with their dreams.

Others will not yet have realised that medicine could be for them, and we need to ensure people are aware the door to becoming a doctor can open at any time in life.

My good friend Rick O’Shea, the rugby commentator and broadcaster, didn’t realise that medicine was for him until much later in life. He opted for the four-year postgraduate course in Swansea, and is now a qualified doctor. All routes must be flagged as very much “open” to those who have the potential to become doctors. But we also need to ensure young people realise their own potential and set ambitions for themselves much earlier in life.

I was pleased to attend a recent event at the Eisteddfod, organised by BMA Cymru, encouraging young people to consider medicine.

An idea I have put before Welsh Government is of an all-Wales health roadshow to explain the career options in the health and care sector to generate excitement in those options.

It could also double up as a roadshow encouraging people to take an interest in their own health.

I’m keen for young people to know what options are there for them.

At a recent meeting of the cross-party group on dementia, we heard how young school pupils had been inspired to consider careers in the health sector after regular visits organised by the school to meet people with dementia.

I’m also pleased about the work that we have done in Plaid Cymru to get government funding for a medical course in Bangor. At the Anglesey Show I spoke to a young woman from the Caernarfon area currently studying anatomy who’s excited now about the prospect of potentially studying medicine at Bangor. I was delighted.

But too many schools see no pupils applying. We have to change that.

Our medical schools have to show that they’re actively recruiting in Wales.

If you persuade Welsh-domiciled students to study medicine in Wales, and provide the assistance they need to get into our medical schools, then the greater the chance they will work in our Welsh NHS.

We shouldn’t need to state the obvious, but the reason we train doctors and other health professionals is in order to staff our NHS. We should make the necessary decisions in policy terms to give our young people more opportunities to study here.

Things have been improving in terms of the numbers of students from Wales studying in Wales’ medical schools, and there has been a change of attitude in the past few years which is to be congratulated, but we have a long way still to go.