Vaughan Gething: The overwhelming majority of people in Wales are very satisfied with the care they receive from the NHS. We are working with the NHS and GPs on improving access as part of our programme of contract and service reform.
Vaughan Gething: We are committed to delivering a sustainable social care sector with a valued and supported workforce. We brought forward the Regulated Services (Service Providers and Responsible Individuals) (Wales) Regulations 2017 to provide greater flexibility for providers to ensure the level of nursing staff is appropriate to the needs of individuals.
Vaughan Gething: I have regular accountability meetings with health boards and trusts. These meetings allow me to challenge and assess organisational delivery and performance against agreed integrated medium-term plans, planning objectives and support achievement of the outcomes and indicators as set out in the national outcome and delivery framework.
Vaughan Gething: I have commissioned a review of eating disorder services following the publication of new NICE guidelines in 2017. The review started in early 2018 and is being led by Dr Jacinta Tan of Swansea University. It is considering all aspects of service provision and will report later in 2018.
Vaughan Gething: Thank you for the question. I have been absolutely clear that overspending by health boards is unacceptable. The Welsh Government is providing targeted intervention support to those boards in deficit to develop sustainable financial plans. With this support, both Abertawe Bro Morgannwg University Local Health Board and Cardiff and Vale University Local Health Board both achieved an improved...
Vaughan Gething: Thank you for the question. I think it's been positive that ABM had a better financial outturn than the previous year and I want to be positive about their prospects for further improvement, until they get to a position that is generally acceptable when they do live within their means, and indeed they provide an acceptable level of performance right across the whole of their responsibility. ...
Vaughan Gething: In fact, last year, I issued measures to have a cap on agency staff and that made a real difference in the last quarter of the last year. The challenge now is to not just see the fruits of a full year of that, but to take wider action as well, which is why the ongoing conversation is that we need to come to an end point about changing the use of both agency and bank staff. Because I think...
Vaughan Gething: Thank you for the question. Our tobacco control delivery plan, published in September last year, outlines the actions we are taking to further reduce smoking levels in Wales. For instance, I recently launched a consultation on regulations to prohibit smoking on hospital grounds, school grounds, local authority playgrounds, and the outdoor areas of registered childcare settings.
Vaughan Gething: Thank you for the question. I recognise that there may be evidence about further progress we could make by taking further action on smoking because, as you say, it is the leading cause of avoidable harm, and we need to do more to help people to quit, because the final point you made is just that. How do we help people to quit? By making sure that appropriate services are in place and, indeed,...
Vaughan Gething: Thank you for the question. We ran through this in the first version of the public health Bill that was not passed before the last Assembly election. At that time, there was real concern about the use of e-cigarettes, and it still remains, about the fact that they're often targeted at younger people, not as an alternative to smoking, and that we also can't be clear about what's in them...
Vaughan Gething: Are you talking about routine medication within a hospital setting?
Vaughan Gething: I'm not sure I understand the question, because for hospital patients and medication, there is medication that they receive when actually in a hospital, and if they have a secondary-care-led medication need, how they actually administer that themselves. It will depend, of course, on the condition and the medication.
Vaughan Gething: Well, look, this is an issue that I'm aware of, the Get It On Time campaign. It's not a condition-specific campaign for one only because, actually, there are a range of other conditions—epilepsy, for example. My younger brother has epilepsy and I know on some of his hospital stays in the English system the non-administration of that has actually led to him having a seizure that would have...
Vaughan Gething: I recognise entirely the point about people taking more responsibility for their own healthcare, but I actually think that the bigger gain to be made on that is how people take their medication in the community and how we enable that to happen. Within a hospital setting, it really is about how the health service make sure that is enabled properly. Some people don't have their own medication,...
Vaughan Gething: —so it can be administered, and that is a challenge for us. There's also something about how we shift some of the work. So, part of our challenge in the hospital pharmacy service is actually that some of that work need not necessarily take place there, and that'll provide them with a greater length of time to do what they really do need to do, and only they can do for hospital-based...
Vaughan Gething: Yes, I'm happy to respond on this. I've actually had direct correspondence from one of my constituents on this matter, as indeed from a wider interest group, and, coincidentally, this Saturday, in Margam, I had the pleasure of meeting people from the Bangladeshi Gastroenterology Association. I also met the president of the British Gastroenterology Association, who said he was imminently...
Vaughan Gething: Well, I don't share his summary of the position. In particular, the very clear advice I've had is that this service is not available consistently in England. I'm not aware of the position in Scotland, but this is not available in every part of the NHS in England, and we don't yet have a clinical consensus. There are a number of advocates who do say that it is a game changer; that is not...
Vaughan Gething: We've actually got Health Technology Wales to do just that, Deputy Presiding Officer, in the same way we have the All Wales Medicines Strategy Group to allow us to have faster access to, actually, properly appraising new medicines as well. So, we do have a process that is available to us on new technology as opposed to new medicine. And, with respect, the clinical consensus that we could...
Vaughan Gething: Thank you for the question. Health services in Montgomeryshire are provided by a dedicated team of staff who are committed to providing high-quality care to and for their local population as close to home as possible.
Vaughan Gething: Yes, I think that Powys Teaching Local Health Board have been particularly forward looking, not just in their partnership with the council, but the way in which they are looking to develop facilities to provide as much care within the county as possible, as well as, of course, commissioning care from other providers within Wales and on the English side of the border. I recognise that the...
