Following the Health Secretary’s announcement of plans to expand medical education in North Wales through collaboration between Cardiff, Swansea and Bangor Universities, I asked him to respond to the North Wales Local Medical Committee’s longstanding calls for restored connections with Liverpool and Manchester University Medical Schools. He dismissed this.
I also again questioned him about mesh implants after the UK Government suspended vaginal mesh surgery in England and constituents called for Wales to follow suit.
Calling for a Welsh Government Statement on Heritage Railways, I referred to the finale of Channel 4’s ‘Great Rail Restorations’ series, filmed on the beautiful Llangollen Railway.
I called on the First Minister to provide the treatment for children with epilepsy in Wales recommended by The National Institute ‘NICE’, and to support heritage projects on Anglesey showcasing its ancient history.
Speaking in the Debate on the Economy, Infrastructure and Skills Committee ‘Enterprise Zones’ Report, I criticised “the lack of available property for businesses across Wales” and Welsh Government plans to merge the Anglesey and Snowdonia Enterprise Zone Boards.
Responding to the Welsh Government Statement: 'Our Valleys, Our Future Progress Report’, I quoted the Bevan Foundation’s comments earlier that this Welsh Government programme was not reaching those who most need it and that they were "puzzled" how the Welsh Government could live with deprivation virtually on its doorstep without sufficient proposals to push investment and skills.
Responding to the Welsh Government Statement on Gender Equality, I noted that I had hosted the Parliamentary Under-Secretary to New Zealand’s Minister of Justice the previous evening at a meeting to discuss gender-based violence and prevention, stated “during the last local government term, my wife, then a County Councillor, was subjected to a campaign of misogynist bullying, some of it online, by the Deputy Leader of Flintshire County Council”, and asked “What action can we take to ensure that local authorities keep their own houses in order, and do not require the victim to seek remedy?”.
I spoke in support of securing the future of Bangor University’s ‘Prince Madog’,the biggest university-run sea bed research vessel in the UK, Chaired the launch of the Cross Party Group on Hospices and Palliative Care Inquiry Report “Inequalities in access to hospice and palliative care: challenges and opportunities”, Chaired the Cross Party Group for Neurological Conditions, and met the President of the Basque Government.
North Wales engagements included Cross Party Group for North Wales and Rural Poverty Event at Bangor University.