Junior doctors have given their views on how Wales can attract more doctors to train in the country, claiming there is a perception of poorer quality when compared to the rest of the UK.

The National Assembly’s health, social care and sport committee is conducting an inquiry into medical recruitment, and recently heard evidence from members of the BMA Welsh junior doctors committee.

WJDC chair Bethan Roberts told AMs: ‘If you’re from Wales, you kind of have an idea of what things are like, but the big issue for us is the perception of the people who are not from Wales.

‘People don’t quite understand how things work here, or they don’t want to understand, and there’s a perception that things aren’t quite as good here. It’s the perception that’s the battle, not the reality.’

Other areas where improvement is needed, the junior doctors said, was ensuring that Welsh-domiciled students applied for and were able to compete fairly for medical school places in their own country.

Dr Roberts said: ‘The issue is looking at how many Welsh-domiciled students are actually accepted into the existing medical schools that we have.

'As someone who had to go elsewhere to train, my form tutor was very angry about this and looked into the figures. I think the intake was under 20 per cent for that year of Welsh domiciled students.

‘If there were to be an extra medical school in Wales, if it’s not attracting Welsh domiciled students into it, then it may not have any impact on recruitment in any case.’

ROBERTS: 'There’s a perception that things aren’t quite as good here'

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