Baroness Mair Eluned Morgan: We are supporting social care with significant additional funding, recruitment campaigns and by working towards the real living wage for care workers. We continue to work as part of the Social Care Fair Work Forum to improve employment terms and conditions in the sector. These measures will support hospital discharges.
Baroness Mair Eluned Morgan: As of 12 January, there were 178 COVID-related patients in hospital across the health board area.
Baroness Mair Eluned Morgan: Diolch yn fawr, Rhianon. I think what's really important is that we make it absolutely clear that it's never too late to arrange an appointment for a first or a second vaccine or a booster dose. So, together with our health boards and a wide range of partners, we're encouraging vaccine take-up, making it as easy as possible to get the vaccine, by offering a really flexible service that adapts...
Baroness Mair Eluned Morgan: Thanks very much, Laura. I can't tell you how aware I am of the many thousands of people—not just your constituents, but people across the whole of Wales—who are genuinely suffering at the moment and are in a lot of pain. So, it is, after COVID, my first priority to get those waiting lists down. We're already working very hard with the health boards. We've set out some clear guidance in...
Baroness Mair Eluned Morgan: Thanks very much, Delyth. I'm pleased to say that the sickness levels within the NHS have actually reduced from a week ago, so they were at about 8.3 per cent of staff off a week ago, now down to 7.3 per cent and, of those, around 1.7 per cent were off with COVID, and about 1 per cent of them were off for self-isolation reasons. So, the rest of them were kind of normal sickness that happens...
Baroness Mair Eluned Morgan: Thanks very much, Joel. The Welsh Government requires NHS organisations to assess barriers to accessing healthcare that affect people with hearing loss in line with the Equality Act 2010. Annual reports are submitted for assessment, detailing achievements made towards implementation of the all-Wales standards for accessible communication and information for people with sensory loss.
Baroness Mair Eluned Morgan: Thanks very much, Joel, and it's disappointing to hear what you're setting out there. I know that officials are currently assessing the most recent submissions against those criteria that we set out in those all-Wales standards for communication and information for people with hearing loss. What those standards do is set out what every patient or service user should expect from those...
Baroness Mair Eluned Morgan: Thank you very much, Rhun. I am highly aware of the fact that so many people are experiencing dementia the length and breadth of Wales, not just those in care homes, but there are many people living at home too who have been isolated, have had less social contact, and we have seen decline during that period among elderly people particularly. And that is why, time and time again, we have...
Baroness Mair Eluned Morgan: Thank you very much. We have set out the guidance clearly. I know that Julie Morgan has ensured that she's done everything in her power to allow people the access they need to go and visit their families. The current dementia plan—. We're looking to the future now, and I think there is an opportunity there to see how far we could go with individual rights. But I would have thought that...
Baroness Mair Eluned Morgan: We are supporting all areas in reducing community transmission. Local action and protections are targeted at areas where rates are increasing. The virus spreads more easily in urban areas where the population density is higher.
Baroness Mair Eluned Morgan: Thank you very much, Sioned. This follows on from the discussion we had in the Senedd last week. I thought that was a very detailed and appropriate debate from everyone who contributed. We're highly aware of the difference in terms of where COVID has hit hardest, and it's clear that those in poorer areas, in poorer households have suffered more than other areas. Therefore, as we rebuild from...
Baroness Mair Eluned Morgan: Thanks very much, Gareth. I almost encouraged you, didn't I, yesterday, to ask me this question, so I'm very pleased that you have asked me this question, because it gives me an opportunity to say that, actually, the data we've had so far actually suggests that those restrictions were helpful. We've certainly seen a difference in terms of hospitalisation. We're just waiting for that data to...
Baroness Mair Eluned Morgan: Diolch yn fawr. Thank you for the opportunity to respond to the debate today. I know that it has really produced some very strong responses from across our communities, and the tone and the passion that we've seen in the debate this afternoon demonstrates that this has touched many, many people. So, I would like to thank people for engaging in the conversation, but clearly there is a need to...
Baroness Mair Eluned Morgan: Now, I understand that many people are concerned that extending the interval between screenings will lead to missing cases of cervical cancer. But I'd like to assure people that HPV causes changes to the cells very slowly over several years, and that means that if there were to be cellular changes, they could be identified early on still in the next screening process. Screening more often...
Baroness Mair Eluned Morgan: She was asking about the pilot in England. We are watching the pilot in England with interest. We know that we've seen a better response in terms of bowel screening since people have been sent out a FIT test. We've sen an increase in people using that from 60 per cent to 65 per cent. We want to know whether that will be the response in relation to cervical screening for those particular areas...
Baroness Mair Eluned Morgan: Introducing those tests for HPV will enable us to make more—
Baroness Mair Eluned Morgan: Okay. Thank you very much. This should be a good news story for Wales. We can prevent more cases of cancer and detect those that are developing earlier on in the process. It's important to note, as many have done, that a quarter of those who are invited for a screening don't attend their appointments. So, if we can use this issue that we have seen, and the concerns that people have expressed,...
Baroness Mair Eluned Morgan: Diolch yn fawr, Dirprwy Lywydd. I'm making this statement today to update the Chamber on the significant progress the Welsh Government has made to deliver on our important programme for government commitment to review voluntary hospice funding in Wales. Hospices play a critical role in providing essential care to more than 20,000 people in Wales affected by terminal illness each year, and...
Baroness Mair Eluned Morgan: Okay. Can you see me now?
Baroness Mair Eluned Morgan: Thank you. Despite hospices putting emergency fundraising activities in place and reducing non-essential provision, there was still a very high and growing risk that hospice and end-of-life care services could slip into insolvency. That is why the Welsh Government stepped in and allocated almost £14 million of emergency funding to support Welsh hospices throughout the pandemic. This funding...
