The Party of Wales Arfon Standing up for the people of Arfon

Here are some of the reasons for establishing a Medical School in Bangor:

• A Bangor Medical School would lead to an improvement in the quality of medical care for the people of our country as part of a pan-Wales approach to training new doctors. 

• North Wales does not have a Medical School at present. The only two in Wales are based in close proximity to each other in south Wales, leaving a huge part of the country without full medical training.

• This is important as academic evidence from a large number of sources proves that a significant percentage of doctors stay to work in the area where they have been trained. 

• As no doctors are being trained here, it is no wonder that the lack of GPs and doctors in the Betsi Health Board is creating huge problems and pressures for the NHS in the area. 

• Combined with a severe lack of beds ( both at Ysbyty Gwynedd and in care homes in North West Wales), the health care situation is critical in north Wales. 

• Spending on locums is higher here than at other health boards. 

• We must start to train doctors in a Medical School in North Wales as part of the long-term solution.

• Bangor is the ideal location - the University excels in medically related education and works in close partnership with Ysbyty Gwynedd already.

• Ysbyty Gwynedd is widely recognized as a centre of excellence ( for example for Mountain Medicine) and works in partnership with specialist establishments in Wales and England.

• The new Medical School would attract students from the local area, from all over Wales and indeed from all over the world, becoming a centre of excellence for rural medicine - finding answers to the challenges of providing care in a sparsely populated area. 

• The new Medical school could be the focus for Coleg Cymraeg Cenedlaethol medical education, training the bilingual doctors needed to fulfill the Government's 'More than Words' strategy which recognises that patient outcomes are better if patients are able to communicate in their first language.