- 18/12/2019
- Posted by: Lesley Griffiths MS
- Category: News
Wrexham’s Assembly Member, Lesley Griffiths has welcomed news the Welsh Labour Government is boosting funding for nurse and other health care training places for the sixth year running.
An extra £15 million will be invested and result in a 13% increase in education and training programmes for healthcare professionals in Wales in 2020-21.
In total, £127.8 million will be invested in health professional education and training during the next financial year.
Lesley Griffiths AM said: “Almost £130 million will be spent on training the next wave of healthcare professionals in Wales.”
“It means that from April 2020, Wales will be training more nurses, midwives, radiographers, physiotherapists, speech and language therapists and dieticians than ever before.”
“The hardworking, dedicated staff are the backbone of our health service and the extra funding will help sustain high quality health care in Wrexham and across Wales.”
Despite ever increasing demand, the Welsh Government is committed to increasing the capacity of the workforce to help the NHS respond to the challenges facing it now and in the future.
Deciding to maintain NHS bursaries for student nurses, after the scheme was scrapped in England, and initiatives such as the Train, Work, Live campaign have helped increase training places, recruit people from outside Wales and encouraged young people to take up health professions.
Over the past five years training places for nurses have increased by 54.8% and midwives have increased by 71.2%. The overall NHS Wales workforce has grown by 10.4% over the last five years.
