Caroline Jones: 4. Will the Cabinet Secretary make a statement on out-of-hours GP services in South Wales West? OAQ51664
Caroline Jones: Diolch, Llywydd. Minister, last week a widespread failure in the NHS IT systems caused chaos for GP practices and hospitals across the country, with many GPs reporting that they were unable to access patient records. One GP described the situation as very frustrating and rather dangerous. Hospitals were unable to access test results and one patient was told he would have to wait another...
Caroline Jones: Thank you for that answer, Cabinet Secretary. NHS Wales Informatics Service have just announced that the new contract for the GP clinical systems and services will be awarded to Vision Health Ltd and Microtest Ltd. This has caused concern for many GP practices that use systems provided by EMIS Health Ltd. GP practices have been told that EMIS Health Ltd did not meet a number of the necessary...
Caroline Jones: Thank you, Cabinet Secretary. Whatever the reasons for the decision against EMIS Health Ltd, this affects many GP practices across Wales who have been using the EMIS system for many years. The Royal College of General Practitioners are concerned that this will have a detrimental impact on both GPs and patients due to the scale of the changes needed to move to a new system. There are fears...
Caroline Jones: Cabinet Secretary, the BMA recently conducted a survey of GPs offering out-of-hours services. Nearly half of all respondents do not provide any out-of-hours services. Those GPs were asked to identify the main barriers to out-of-hours provision: 64.3 per cent cited exhaustion from daily pressures as the main barrier. In my region, over the last couple of years, four practices have closed and...
Caroline Jones: I would like to thank the Children, Young People and Education Committee, along with the Chair, for their work on this inquiry and for the report. Perinatal mental health problems are very common, affecting around 20 per cent of women at some point during the perinatal period. They're also a major public health issue, not just because of their adverse impact on the mother, but also because...
Caroline Jones: 3. Will the First Minister outline how the invest-to-save fund is benefiting South Wales West? OAQ51705
Caroline Jones: First Minister, while there have been good examples of the scheme being used to improve the lives of constituents in my region, such as funding for additional foster carers in Neath Port Talbot or a support worker for looked-after children in Swansea, the biggest investment of nearly £1.5 million was used to improve the offices of Bridgend council. Surely the scheme should prioritise areas...
Caroline Jones: Thank you for your statement, Cabinet Secretary, and I would like to add my thanks to Dr Atherton for his second annual report as chief medical officer. I'm pleased that Dr Atherton has opted to use his annual reports to shine a spotlight on growing public health challenges. Last year, he singled out the health inequalities that exist between those living in our most and least deprived...
Caroline Jones: Finally, thank you. Diolch, Dirprwy Llywydd. Thank you for your statement, Cabinet Secretary. Digital technology is transforming our health service. The use of information technology is vital to a modern NHS. We can’t go back to the days of paper records or a time when test results took weeks to arrive with our Royal Mail service. I welcome the introduction of the Welsh patient referral...
Caroline Jones: Will the Cabinet Secretary outline how the Welsh Government's economic policies are improving the prosperity of South Wales West?
Caroline Jones: That was quick. Sorry, I wasn't ready. [Interruption.] Oh, I'm ready, believe you me. [Laughter.] Diolch, Dirprwy Lywydd. I want to make it clear at the outset that I'm not ideologically opposed to expanding the Assembly. Labour's great constitutional experiment, introducing different systems of devolution to the three devolved nations, shows that they didn’t have a clue how to deliver...
Caroline Jones: Diolch, Dirprwy Lywydd. I'd like to give Suzy Davies and Dai Lloyd a minute of my time to speak in this debate. My debate is on the role of community hospitals in the twenty-first century. On Thursday 5 July this year, the NHS will be 70 years old. Those 70 years have seen tremendous advances in care: the eradication of smallpox and polio, the world’s first liver, heart and lung transplants...
Caroline Jones: The NHS have cut bed numbers by a staggering 45 per cent. In 1990 there were nearly 20,000 beds in the Welsh NHS. Today, there are just over 10,000. Community hospitals across the country have shut, wards have been closed or merged, and plans have been unveiled for further closures. We have also seen a lack of investment and planning in the social care sector, which has accelerated under...
Caroline Jones: 1. Will the First Minister outline how the Welsh Government is tackling poverty in South Wales West? OAQ51777
Caroline Jones: Thank you, First Minister. My region is now one of the poorest regions in the UK. It has the lowest employment rate in Wales, high levels of economic inactivity, and some of the lowest gross disposable household income in the UK. After nearly 20 years of Labour's economic plans, things are going in the wrong direction. My region doesn't need economic tinkering, like the disastrous...
Caroline Jones: —yes—is already produced in Bridgend, in my region. We should be building a high-tech cluster around Pencoed, and lower tax is the catalyst we need. First Minister, what discussions have you had with your colleague the finance Secretary about emulating Ireland and encouraging high-tech businesses like Intel and Apple to set up shop in Wales by offering them tax breaks once we are free...
Caroline Jones: Thank you for your statement, Cabinet Secretary, and I would also like to place on record my thanks to all the dedicated staff for the way that they've handled pressures this winter. Spring is just around the corner, but our NHS remains in the depths of a winter crisis, with many operations being cancelled, and therefore we cannot move on. I should rephrase that, because the term 'winter...
Caroline Jones: Cabinet Secretary, smart meters can be a vital tool in changing behaviours, enabling us to put a price on that left-on light or to see how much it costs to leave a device on stand-by. However, older smart meters can tie customers into a single supplier as they are useless when switching to a new supplier, and customers often have to pay for a new smart meter to replace the dumb one. The UK...
Caroline Jones: I would like to place on record my thanks to the committee clerks and all those who gave evidence to our committee during the course of our inquiry, and to our dedicated Chair. It is a sad indictment of our society when you consider that around one in five of people in Wales are lonely. Over half of people aged over 25 live alone and research by Age UK found that many older people can go five...
