***Welsh Government GP Recruitment Campaign Hailed as a Success***

In my role as Cabinet Secretary for Health and Social Service I am delighted to announce that the Train Work Live campaign has exceeded its GP training places target.
 
The Wales Deanery has confirmed the appointment of 144 GP training places, surpassing the 136 places available. This compares to 121 places that were filled in 2016 – an increase of 19%.
 
The excellent news follows the launch of an international and UK-wide Welsh Labour Government campaign to promote Wales as an excellent place for doctors – including GPs – to train, work and live.
 
The campaign includes two financial incentives schemes: a targeted scheme offering a £20,000 incentive to GP trainees taking up posts in specified areas with a trend of low fill rates, and a universal scheme offering a one off payment for all GP trainees to cover the cost of one sitting of their final examinations
 
The campaign was recently extended to encourage other healthcare professionals to come and train in Wales.
 
This is great news for Wales and the Welsh NHS. It shows that the Train Work Live campaign has been a huge success.
 
Trainee doctors are seeing the benefits of training in Wales and voting with their feet.
 
The decision to extend the campaign is clearly the right one and I look forward to more positive results in the future.