Vaughan Gething: Thank you. We are currently identifying cases of the virus, isolating patients, and tracing anyone who has been in contact with them. If the disease becomes established in the UK, we will need to consider further measures to delay the rate and extent of its spread.
Vaughan Gething: Thank you for the questions. On personal protective equipment, I made the decision and the announcement over the weekend about protective equipment to go to general practice. We expect that to be completed within the week across the whole country, so, in Islwyn, obviously, I would expect that every practice within Islwyn will have that within that time frame. If any Member is aware that they...
Vaughan Gething: On your point about remote consultations so that people don't necessarily need to attend in person, we've already had a programme of work to do exactly that through the health service. For example, many people now can have advice about eye health conditions without actually needing to go and see a consultant. We've managed to improve access by making use of our primary care contractors in...
Vaughan Gething: I completely agree with the ending that the Member has left there, because it's really important that all of us behave responsibly and provide information from trusted sources to our constituents. So that is information that the Governments of the UK are providing, including on the Welsh Government website, where we have got clear guidance for schools, and our guidance is that schools should...
Vaughan Gething: I recognise the broader point that's being made. The relative levels of critical care capacity across the UK are lower than other European countries; that's true. I don't think now is the time to try to get into any of the funding or other challenges that we might have in a normal period of politics; it's really what we can do now to improve the capacity that we have, for what we expect to be...
Vaughan Gething: We're considering all options. And that's both part of our pandemic influenza planning that is being stepped up; it's also part of what local resilience fora are looking at, to consider what takes place in each of the four areas. And that involves not just devolved public services, it of course involves the regular relations we have together with non-devolved services. So, for example, the...
Vaughan Gething: There are real, practical questions there, and I'm glad the Member managed to raise some of those with my office earlier today. And I would encourage any other Members, from any party, who have similar experience with constituents, where they're not sure about the advice they're being given, or they've been directed to the wrong part of the system, to raise those with my office. Because I...
Vaughan Gething: Well, the issues are different in different health boards, and of course I'm disappointed, not just at the failure to meet the target, but about the extent of that failure between different health boards themselves. In Hywel Dda, you'll know that we've undertaken a series of interventions and reports around their challenge and the opportunities for them to improve. It should, though, be said...
Vaughan Gething: Well, I think there's a broader point here about financial improvement across the health service in the last three or four years. I took a particular choice, on taking on the Cabinet role, that I would make sure that whilst we make sure the bills are paid—so that patient care is not compromised, that staff don't have to worry about whether they're going to get paid in the last two months of...
Vaughan Gething: Yes. The health board is progressing the work on plans to recruit the right person to this crucially important role. Although decisions about employment matters are for the health board and its chair to make as the employing organisation, I am wholly committed to providing the support needed to the health board to deliver the improvements that are still required.
Vaughan Gething: I think there are two points there: one is the point about how the health board is constituted and then the make-up of the board and clinicians making up the majority. In terms of how the health board is constituted, if there's a broader point about its organisation and the scale of it, I actually think that for north Wales to improve, to try to undertake a structural reorganisation in order...
Vaughan Gething: I think there are two points there. One is the licence but the expectation that a chief executive will make changes that are difficult—difficult internally within the organisation, but also, speaking honestly, within the broader politics around the health service. Any time difficult choices are made, most of us objectively end up seeing that there's a reason for a difficult choice to be...
Vaughan Gething: I think what has to change is delivery, and it's the delivery against an understanding of what their challenges are and their opportunities for improvement, and, actually, some of the work that we have commissioned around the health board, about the real understanding of where they could and should improve their finance function, what that means for the service, but also about having a...
Vaughan Gething: In support of the UK action plan, which builds on existing pandemic flu preparedness work, a planning and response group involving both senior officials and key external stakeholders has been convened. This will provide strategic co-ordination and support within Government and across the health service. This, of course, includes ensuring NHS accident and emergency preparedness right across Wales.
Vaughan Gething: You're right to say—and as I've indicated both in previous statements and in questions that I answered earlier today—that we'll need to consider how to change the service. That both means about people who currently go through an accident and emergency department and into a hospital, how that may change and how some of those routes work, but also to make sure there's more capacity within...
Vaughan Gething: Our priority is to ensure the people of Wales, including those in west Wales, receive health services that deliver the best possible outcomes for patients. Achieving the vision that we set out in 'A Healthier Wales' will help to deliver that priority.
Vaughan Gething: Well, this is a question about the delivery of the healthier west Wales plan. You'll recall the significant engagement that took place with both staff and the public, and then actual front-line members of staff presenting options to the health board for the future. And, within that, the community health council chose not to refer the possible options in. So, there is now an agreed strategy...
Vaughan Gething: Our approach to improving renal services is set out in the Welsh renal clinical network's delivery plan for renal services in Wales. The plan provides a framework for health boards setting out the expectations of the NHS in Wales to commission and deliver high quality patient centred care.
Vaughan Gething: We are committed to addressing child health inequalities in Wales. Our programme for government includes the healthy child Wales programme, which helps ensure that inequalities linked to poor child health are further reduced by delivering a universal set of health visitor contacts to all children in Wales, with additional support provided in response to identified need.
Vaughan Gething: The Welsh Government will continue to prioritise strategic action to drive change as set out in 'A Healthier Wales'. This includes, for example: the transformation programme and transformation fund; research, innovation and improvement; and supporting health and social care to work more closely together through the integrated care fund.
