Baroness Mair Eluned Morgan: Diolch yn fawr. I think it's really important that we recognise that the staffing challenge when it comes to healthcare is a global challenge, so people all over the world are looking for the same people, especially people like anaesthetists. So, we are in a very difficult and competitive environment. When it comes to investment in north Wales, I think it's really important that you...
Baroness Mair Eluned Morgan: Formally.
Baroness Mair Eluned Morgan: Diolch, Llywydd, and very many thanks for allowing me to reply to this opposition debate. I'd like to begin by placing on record that I recognise the invaluable partnership between the Wales Air Ambulance Charity and Emergency Medical Retrieval and Transfer Service Cymru, known as EMRTS, in saving lives and in optimising outcomes in Wales. The air ambulance service in Wales is making a huge...
Baroness Mair Eluned Morgan: Everyone involved in the work of commissioning and providing these crucial services is eager to ensure that the funding available to them is spent in the best possible way. They would like to reduce the number of patients who can't access the service. In addition to that, the Wales Air Ambulance Charity wants to make the best use of the donations made by the public and is currently developing...
Baroness Mair Eluned Morgan: I think that some of the points that have been made on the floor of the Chamber today are important and should be taken into account, particularly, I think, the fact that when it's difficult for a helicopter to reach a certain place, you would have to use a vehicle, and that is far more difficult in rural areas. I'm sure that will be taken into account during the inquiry and the review. I...
Baroness Mair Eluned Morgan: Diolch yn fawr, Llywydd. I'd like to take this opportunity to update Members following my meeting on 12 January with the NHS trade unions. I wrote to the unions on 6 January in advance of the meeting, inviting them to discuss a package of measures aiming to find a way to offer some additional reward to the workforce so they felt able to call off their industrial action. I suggested that the...
Baroness Mair Eluned Morgan: Thanks very much, Russell, and thanks for your understanding that this is a very tough negotiation and a very difficult time for all of those working in the NHS. You asked about the confidence in the pay review body process. I think there are things that can change. I'm obviously very keen to hear what the NHS unions think in terms of what could be improved, but one thing that is very clear...
Baroness Mair Eluned Morgan: Thanks very much. First of all, on the issue of agency workers, I think it's really important we put this into a context. So, 65 per cent of what we spend in the NHS is spent directly on staffing, and, of that, about 6 per cent is spent on agency workers. That's too much, and we need to bring it down. But what was clear to me—. I spent a bit of time in Withybush hospital on the weekend....
Baroness Mair Eluned Morgan: Thanks very much, Carolyn. Certainly, we're very aware that it's not just about pay; there are lots of other issues around this, which is why I was really pleased to have been presented with the staff welfare project on Monday, by representatives of the trade union movement, just setting out the kinds of things where they'd really like to see us make some movement. And so, obviously, I'll be...
Baroness Mair Eluned Morgan: Diolch yn fawr, Llywydd. I wasn't exactly sure what Plaid Cymru hoped to achieve by getting the Welsh Government to declare a health crisis in Wales, so, I am pleased that I now know the three main points of what you wanted us to focus on, and I am grateful for those. So, one of them was to help focus minds on finding innovative ways to address the problems we face, focus all our spending...
Baroness Mair Eluned Morgan: Yes, absolutely, and that's already happening. So, that's why we've been having these summits, which have been more or less organised by the NHS executive, which is in shadow form at the moment. But I was really interested in your point that you want us to focus all our spending powers on the issues that matter, and that's resolving the pay dispute. A lot of your colleagues have talked...
Baroness Mair Eluned Morgan: Okay.
Baroness Mair Eluned Morgan: Okay. Well, that's fine. Well, if it is top of the list, I'm just quite intrigued, then—. I'm quite intrigued, we have a co-operation agreement; there is hardly a mention of health in your co-operation agreement. Mental health is there; not a word about health. And I think it's really important for people to understand that we have to release money from somewhere, and I can't see you...
Baroness Mair Eluned Morgan: You have a situation where we have a co-operation agreement, and there's money in the budget. If you're saying that we have to re-prioritise everything, then I think we've got to just be absolutely clear that you have made some decisions. You've made some political decisions, and you have to stand by those. Now, the system, particularly over Christmas, was under pressure like the NHS has...
Baroness Mair Eluned Morgan: In terms of waiting lists in general, there was a reduction in the total number of people awaiting treatment in October, and this is a trend that I hope will continue over the next few months. It's interesting to note that the total number of open pathways in England increased by 21 per cent over the past 12 months from October, whilst the number in Wales increased by only 10 per cent during...
Baroness Mair Eluned Morgan: I'd just like to say something also about the HEIW education plan that was published today. It's absolutely right that we need more nurses, and that's why we've put an 8 per cent increase in terms of the money we're putting into training people: £281 million will be invested in training the next generation of NHS workers, and that includes the fact that we will have 400 more nurse training...
Baroness Mair Eluned Morgan: Diolch yn fawr. 'Looking Forward Together: The Allied Health Professions Framework for Wales' identifies the changes required both by allied health professionals and their employers to ensure health and social care secures the highest quality and value from these important professions. 'A Healthier Wales' sets out our vision for enabling people to live at home, as independently as possible,...
Baroness Mair Eluned Morgan: We have already invested significantly in innovative community services. Our regional integration fund provides more than £144 million to support six national models of integrated care. These models include community-based prevention and community co-ordination, complex care closer to home and home-from-hospital services. I am taking the opportunity today to reiterate my expectation that the...
Baroness Mair Eluned Morgan: Thank you very much. So, how it’s allocated, obviously this will be proportionate to the population, so we’ll make sure that that reflects the population needs, obviously. Just in terms of how many allied health professionals we’ve got in Wales, we’ve got about 9,267 at the moment. Just to give you an idea, we’ve got about 2,000 occupational therapists, we’ve got 2,455...
Baroness Mair Eluned Morgan: Thank you, Rhun, and it's lovely to have a positive response when we do talk about health, so thank you for that. These are new people who we're welcoming into the system. When you talk about funding, we have to make choices, and we have chosen to bring more people into this role. And evidently, therefore, you have to make a choice when you're making that choice, and we could have provided...
