By Sian Lloyd BBC Wales Health Correspondent

In some parts of Wales vacancies for consultants are around 15%

In July, there was a stark warning to the policy-makers.

A wide-ranging review into the health of the NHS in Wales, carried out by a team headed by business analyst Derek Wanless, said the service simply could not go on as it is.

The 97-page document found some patients faced unacceptably long waits for hospital treatment and that growing demands on the service could not be met.

But it also warned that we should all take responsibility for our own health and said more needed to be done to prevent illness.

In November, the Welsh assembly government responded.

There are schemes to help attract more dentists to areas where there are shortages

It pledged a better deal for Welsh patients over the next 20 years.

Health and Social Services Minister Jane Hutt promised an extra �25m for efficiency-improving schemes, such as projects to reduce delays in transferring patients out of hospital.

Poached

But on the same day in Westminster, Labour MP Jon Owen Jones told the Commons that within a year Welsh patients would wait three times as long as those in England for similar operations.

While the Westminster government remains defiant in setting up its flagship foundation hospitals across the border, here in Wales the assembly government continues to say no to these so-called elite institutions.

With the power to fix their own remuneration packages, doctors' leaders in Wales feared experts from Welsh hospitals could be poached.

In some parts of Wales, vacancies for consultants are already running at around 15 per cent.

The way GPs and hospital doctors work will change

The way GPs and hospital doctors work will change in the future.

After much negotiation, GPs got a new contract allowing surgeries to opt out of out-of-hours care.

Talks about new working terms for hospital consultants initially stalled in Westminster.

But negotiations continued in Wales, and a deal was accepted in November.

The British Medical Association hopes the new package will go some way to resolving the current recruitment crisis, by making Wales a more attractive place to work for doctors.

But for many people living in rural parts of Wales dentists have continued to be in short supply.

During the summer 600 people queued on the streets in Carmarthen hoping to be taken onto an NHS list , only for 300 to be turned away.

There are schemes to help attract more dentists to areas where there are shortages, but in the meantime hundreds of people have to travel long-distances for dental care.

A multi-million pound re-organisation of the NHS last April gives the task of commissioning local health and social services to 22 local health boards.

The aim is to match local services to local need.