Rhun ap Iorwerth: I’ll begin by talking about the experience of a young person, Kelly O’Keefe from Talsarnau in Gwynedd, who is in her 20s by now but who has been suffering from arthritis from a very early age, receiving treatment in Alder Hey Hospital in Liverpool—an excellent hospital, but that’s not the point in this context. Her parents had to take a day off work to take her to Liverpool, with...
Rhun ap Iorwerth: 13. Will the First Minister make a statement on the protection of war memorials in Wales? OAQ(5)0734(FM)[W]
Rhun ap Iorwerth: May I draw your attention to a recent case of a constituent who was homeless? Citizens Advice and I tried to assist him in securing a crisis home until a more permanent home could be provided for him. I understand the pressures on local authorities, naturally, but in this case the council didn’t believe that they could place this individual in the priority category. But in this case, what...
Rhun ap Iorwerth: Mi gofiaf i heddiw fel y diwrnod lle cyrhaeddom ni gwestiwn 13, ac mae fy niolch i Neil Hamilton ac i Mark Reckless am fethu ag ymestyn am eu ffeiliau yn ddigon cyflym. Rwy’n ddiolchgar o gael y cyfle, ac mae hwn yn fater, digwydd bod, rydw i’n teimlo’n reit gryf yn ei gylch o. Mae cofebau’r rhyfel mawr—mi wyddoch chi amdanyn nhw—ar sgwâr y pentref yn bethau sy’n cael eu...
Rhun ap Iorwerth: 1. Will the Cabinet Secretary make a statement on the number of patients referred for orthopaedic treatment in north Wales? OAQ(5)0201(HWS)[W]
Rhun ap Iorwerth: More than 1,200 patients are waiting longer than a year for treatment in north Wales and that is unacceptable. I hope that you would agree with that. A recent paper from the board on developing orthopaedic services emphasises the need for more training places in order to provide the necessary workforce to create a sustainable service that can meet reasonable targets. Isn’t the statement...
Rhun ap Iorwerth: Diolch yn fawr. On Monday, the auditor general released a critical report about the behaviour of Cardiff and Vale regarding procurement and recruitment. Now, I understand that. In response, NHS Wales’s chief executive has written to LHBs to seek assurances about their processes. What’s your hunch? Do you think that this was a one-off?
Rhun ap Iorwerth: The report itself highlighted what I think we’re justified in calling ‘nepotism’ when it came to procurement and recruitment. The auditor general also noted it proved extremely difficult to obtain a clear position of the facts relating to the matters subject to audit. UHB officers and former officers provided conflicting and inconsistent accounts. There was a tendency for them to blame...
Rhun ap Iorwerth: You mentioned their accountability within the NHS and how the NHS itself seeks to better itself through its own governance. You have recently published a White Paper on reforming NHS governance, and real concerns, actually, have been brought to my attention about some of the suggestions that have been made, certainly in relation to the replacement of community health councils with new...
Rhun ap Iorwerth: Animals are animals across Europe.
Rhun ap Iorwerth: Will the First Minister make a statement on giving patients a voice in the NHS?
Rhun ap Iorwerth: I’d like to welcome the publication of this delivery plan, and I’m sure that we can all welcome any commitment to continue to try to reduce the smoking rates, and especially those steps to try to prevent people from starting smoking in the first instance, because I do believe that that is the most significant element of the battle to reduce smoking rates in the long term. If I can look...
Rhun ap Iorwerth: May I first of all welcome the interim report, as it is very thorough and shows a great deal of research and consultation? It gives us a great deal of detail on the state and challenges facing the NHS and the care sector in Wales today, but we must also say that the findings aren’t ones that should surprise us too much. What we have is a picture of financial pressures, demographic...
Rhun ap Iorwerth: Thank you for taking an intervention. Just very briefly, it’s not always about more and more staff. It’s making sure, for example, that where we train doctors in Wales, we keep more of them in Wales, because far too many medical students who are trained in Wales end up working outside Wales, and we want to train more of our own students here in Wales, including in Bangor.
Rhun ap Iorwerth: 5. Will the Cabinet Secretary make a statement on homelessness in Ynys Môn? (OAQ51027) [W]
Rhun ap Iorwerth: Thank you. This month, I met with staff and managers of some of the organisations and charities that do excellent work on Anglesey in tackling and dealing with homelessness, including The Wallich and Digartref Môn, and Gorwel, also. Unfortunately, being asked to do more and more with reducing resources means that they are now reaching a point where it is entirely impossible to achieve, and...
Rhun ap Iorwerth: This is one of those situations that’s likely to get more and more common, I guess, as treatments that prolong life, rather than cure cancer, get developed, but with a potential for major cost implications. Now, we’ve had concerns, which you know well about, about IPFR and exceptionality, and I certainly look forward to seeing how changes recently announced will improve access. But...
Rhun ap Iorwerth: This inquiry was worth while, and I thank the Chair and my fellow Members and the clerks and the research team. We started from a point where we knew there was a problem, of course, that medical recruitment was a barrier to the NHS delivering its functions, but what we have now, I think, is a valuable document—a very comprehensive document—asking why, and what we can do to try and...
Rhun ap Iorwerth: Will you confirm that you will look at going down the route of accepting undergraduates from year 1 right the way through, which I am told without any shadow of a doubt is possible in Bangor, through a collaborative approach between Cardiff, Swansea, Bangor, whoever might want to get involved?
Rhun ap Iorwerth: Diolch, Dirprwy Lywydd, and Plaid Cymru is pleased to support this motion today. We are not happy with the proposals that the Government is indeed trying to rush through with little scrutiny, it seems, and what could only be described as a sham consultation, and, yes, we too have noticed the scramble to arrange focus groups close to the consultation deadline—indicative, I think, of how this...
