Irish doctor is new health minister for Wales

An Irish born doctor who followed his father’s footsteps into politics was today called on to save the troubled health service in Wales.

Dr Brian Gibbons, originally from Roscommon, was promoted to health minister in the Cardiff parliament after five years as an assembly member.

Brought up in Keadue, Dr Gibbons was educated in Summerhill College in Sligo before graduating in medicine from National University of Ireland, Galway in 1974.

The 54-year-old left Ireland in 1976 to take up vocational training in general practice in Yorkshire before moving to the valleys of south Wales in 1980.

His father Hugh, also a doctor and politician, held a seat in the Dáil for Fianna Fáil during the late 1960s and early 1970s.

The Labour AM’s Upper Afan medical practice earned him an international reputation for innovation and research over two decades. He pioneered work on preventing heart disease and promoting patient involvement.

As health minister, however, his task will need as much skill and innovation if the problem of waiting lists is to be solved. Cutting waiting times will be top of his in-tray ahead of the British general election.

His predecessor, Jane Hutt, has come under constant attack for her handling of the health service.

Waiting lists have risen year after year – more than 310,000 people, a tenth of the population, are waiting for treatment – while they plummeted in England leading to fierce criticisms by Welsh Labour MPs.

Dr Gibbons, a trade unionist, is one of the most popular AMs at Cardiff Bay and one of the few Labour politicians to increase their majority at the 2003 Assembly elections.

He is married with two grown children and continues to live in Blaengwynfi in the Upper Afan Valley.

Dr Gibbons also takes over the tricky social services portfolio, with the Assembly Government monitoring the performances of both Cardiff and Blaenau Gwent councils.