BBC reports that NHS in Wales is short of 400 doctors.

This shortage puts more pressure on doctors who are already in the hospital. Patients may have to queue up to see doctors or may have to travel farther to obtain treatment.

There are approximately 5,500 doctors in Wales at the present. The Welsh Assembly Government states that the number of unfilled vacancies is a cause of worry to it. The Assembly reports that it is making efforts to the fill the open vacancies.

The Eye on Wales, aired by BBC radio, received information that hospitals are being downgraded owing to a lack of doctors. There is also a possibility that small hospitals may be shut down due to this shortage.

This has also disconcerted doctors who believe that opportunity to train doctors will narrow if hospitals are downgraded.

Doctors are finding this situation very complex. Colin Ferguson, a consultant vascular surgeon and a spokesman for the Royal College of Surgeons, says that a resolution to the problem of deficit lies in collaborating with and amalgamating smaller units.

Ferguson says, "There are lots of small units in Wales and I think it does make both clinical and financial and economic and service sense for some of these units to be amalgamated into networks which are much more sustainable".