International Workers in the NHS and Social Care

Part of 1. Questions to the First Minister – in the Senedd at 2:06 pm on 2 July 2024.

Alert me about debates like this

Photo of Vaughan Gething Vaughan Gething Labour 2:06, 2 July 2024

I thank the Member for his question. I do want to just recognise that I don't welcome his views on politics—we disagree and we're in different parties—but I do recognise and welcome his public service contribution in our health service. It's part of the success story of our NHS. If anyone goes into an operating theatre in any NHS hospital in Wales or across the UK, they'll see that international success story in front of them. It's part of how our health service was created and how it's sustained. In addition, of course, we do continue to invest even more in training record numbers of staff here in Wales. If you look at nursing numbers, midwifery numbers, physiotherapists—a whole range of areas where we've deliberately increased our investment in training, and the health Secretary set that out last week—. That's in addition to what we're doing in the new medical school that will open in Bangor, and in addition to what we've successfully done in the last five-to-six years in sustainably increasing general practitioner trainee numbers as well. 

In addition to that, we do recruit people from other parts of the world, and we do so in a way that is sustainable and ethical. A good example of that is in Kerala, an Indian state where they deliberately overtrain and oversupply health and care professionals. We have an agreement to recruit 250 nurses and doctors from Kerala because we have an ethical partnership with them, and this is a deliberate choice where people want to work in other parts of the world, where they still have family links to go back, and we're proud of the duality in that. I'm someone who was born in a different country as well. I'm here and I'm perfectly capable and able to celebrate my mother's heritage—the place of my birth—and my father's birth in Ogmore-by-Sea. That's who I am and part of the story of our country, and the success of our country, moving forward. So, we'll continue to train and recruit within Wales and the UK. We'll also continue to undertake ethical recruitment from other parts of the world, and the Kerala agreement that the health Secretary signed with the Chief Minister of Kerala is a good example of that.