The Labour dominated Welsh government is attempting to poach junior doctors from England as the dispute over their pay and a new contract rumbles on.
Strike action is due over the massively controversial new contract and now, to run salt into the governments wounds, the Welsh health minister, Mark Drakeford, has released a recruitment video claiming his devolved government has a partnership approach to negotiations.
Drakeford is arguing that the ‘born in Wales’ as one of its principle architects, Aneurin Bevan, came from the country. The service, Drakeford reminds his audience in the film, is all about making health services available to those who most need it not to those who can afford to pay or know the right people.
The wrangling over the junior doctor contract is seen  as an opportunity for the Welsh government as it bids to recruit more young health professionals.
Junior doctors in England, 20,000 of whom staged a protest march in London last month, are angry that the proposed contract will extend the hours in any week for which they are paid basic rates of pay – from the current finish time of 7pm on weekdays to 10pm – and, crucially, will also include Saturday until teatime for the first time.
