WAG Inaction Must Not Lead To Medical Brain Drain

12.00.00am BST (GMT +0100) Tue 3rd May 2005

First Minister Rhodri Morgan has admitted he doesn't know whether Welsh students will be given help with tuition fees, as has been promised in England.

His astonishing answer came at First Minister's Questions when Welsh Liberal Democrats Assembly Leader Mike German put him on the spot.

Speaking afterwards, Mike German said: "I am shocked to hear that 9 months after the Department of Health announced it would help medical students with their fees in later years, the First Minister of the Welsh Assembly Government doesn't know if Wales will follow suit.

"Top-up fees and tuition fees are a barrier to learning, and if Welsh students do not get the same help as those in England we will surely see fewer students from less affluent backgrounds joining the medical professions. Medicine must not become the monopoly of the rich. Hiding behind the Rees Commission is Labour's favourite tactic on student fees, but in this case, we have to make sure that young people aren't put off a career in medicine."

At First Minister's Questions Mr German asked: "England has recognised the threat that top-up fees pose to the long term supply of graduates working for the NHS by offering to pay fees for medical students. Last August I asked your then Health Minister whether she would be prepared to match that pledge. 9 months ago the government refused to give an answer to a question that in England had already been answered. When the HE Act has been introduced fully, will Welsh students find themselves at a disadvantage compared to their English counterparts?"

Mr Morgan said he did not know, and would ask Dr Gibbons to write a letter in response.

Notes:

Mr German first posed the question to then Health Minister Jane Hutt in August 2004. Ministers in England pledged to meet the full cost of variable tuition fees for medical and dental students in years 5 and 6 of the standard undergraduate courses and years 2,3 and 4 of fast-track courses.

At the time, he said: "Unless Wales follows suit there will be a major disincentive for future doctors and dentists to train and remain in Wales."