THE Senedd Member for Arfon wants the First Minister to confirm that the North Wales medical school planned for Bangor will be ready by 2025.

In a Plenary meeting yesterday, Siân Gwenllian MS asked Mark Drakeford about the plans for the school.

In May, Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board announced that the proposed North Wales medical school in Bangor could be ready by 2025.

In her address to the First Minister MS Gwenllian said: “The recruitment of doctors continues to be a problem in the North Wales area, with far too much being spent on locums and far too many vacancies in surgeries.

“I am very pleased that you have supported the consistent calls made by Plaid Cymru for a new medical school in Bangor, and you just confirm that once again, and that this is now being implemented.

“So, will you confirm that the new medical school could open in the year 2025? That’s in four years’ time, and that is what the health board has announced recently.”

The First Minister responded, saying that a group is working to develop the plans for the medical school in Bangor.

“Stage one of their work is complete; stage two of their work is being carried out at the moment," he said.

“It involves the local health board, it involves professional representatives as well, it involves some other voices who will be directly involved in making sure that that project is properly completed and makes the contribution we all want to see to making sure there are doctors and other members of the clinical team available in North Wales.

“The team plan to complete stage two of their work in July, and, provided that it arrives in that way, I know that the Minister will look to make a statement to Members here, drawing on their advice and setting out the timetable of the sort to which Siân Gwenllian has referred this afternoon.”