Vaughan Gething: Morriston hospital has benefitted from significant recent capital investment. Any future developments should take account of the current and future role of Morriston within the ARCH approach and its wider role as part of an integrated healthcare system.
Vaughan Gething: The independent review group is making good progress with the review. It is currently holding a series of workshops with patients, healthcare professionals and patient organisations to hear their views about the IPFR process. I expect to receive the group’s report and recommendations in December and will announce the next steps in the new year.
Vaughan Gething: We have invested an additional £8 million a year in CAMHS in Wales and the NHS is working on a range of actions to reduce waiting lists. The total number of young people waiting has reduced by 26 per cent between August 2015 and August 2016.
Vaughan Gething: The full business case has now been approved for the specialist and critical care centre. Accessibility arrangements in terms of transport links will form a key part of the work to be undertaken between now and the facility opening.
Vaughan Gething: Supporting and encouraging people to take steps to improve their lifestyle and reduce the risk of preventable illness remains a priority for Welsh Government. ‘Taking Wales Forward’ sets out our ambition to embed healthy living throughout our programmes, place health at the heart of everything that we do.
Vaughan Gething: We are committed to improving child health in Wales. Our programme for government, ‘Taking Wales Forward’ includes our Healthy Child Wales programme, which provides a universal health programme for all families with children up to the age of seven.
Vaughan Gething: Thank you, Deputy Presiding Officer. I’m pleased to update Members on how NHS Wales, local authorities and other partners are planning to deliver resilient services to citizens for the coming winter period. Last winter, urgent and emergency services experienced days where there were significant surges in demand, especially from patients with increasingly complex care needs. On some days,...
Vaughan Gething: Thank you for the comments and questions. In terms of your opening comments, I don’t accept your assessment that there’s not much mention of social care. Social care is crucial to the whole system working. It isn’t just about social workers within hospitals—when you think about the ICF and the way that works, that’s got to be a partnership with social care. And, in your own...
Vaughan Gething: Thank you for the comments and questions. I think I can be upbeat and ambitious about where we could and should be and talk about a resilient service, but, as I’ve said several times in my statement, winter will be a challenge; it always is. We know that the demand profile changes in winter. We know that when we talk about the service under pressure, we're talking about our staff, and I'm...
Vaughan Gething: Thank you for the points—a number of similar points to Angela Burns, and some novel ones as well. In terms of the workforce challenge, as I say, we recognise it. In every statement that I make in this Chamber, every set of questions, I expect to get asked about the workforce challenges. These are challenges that are not unique to Wales, but we have a responsibility to help navigate our way...
Vaughan Gething: Hello. Sorry?
Vaughan Gething: Sorry. Thank you for the comments and questions—said with the authority of a former head of health for Unison, of course. I think, actually, that the point you made early at the start about the English system—. Part of our challenge in Wales is to recognise the challenges that the more disjointed system in England has delivered for their staff and citizens, but also to make real the...
Vaughan Gething: Formally.
Vaughan Gething: Thank you, Presiding Officer, and I’m pleased to speak in today’s debate and recognise the contributions made by other Members on the invaluable contribution that our NHS workforce makes to the health of our nation. Staff are at the heart of our NHS, and our priority is to ensure that the Welsh NHS has the right workforce it needs for the longer term. We will not discriminate against...
Vaughan Gething: Thank you, Deputy Presiding Officer, and I thank my colleague for raising this matter in the Chamber, but also the contribution of Jenny Rathbone. You both made your own perspectives and points very clear about the decision taken by Cardiff University. I think it’s important to start off by recognising the impact of heart disease. We’ve heard recently, and again reminded ourselves in the...
Vaughan Gething: Thank you for the question. At its public board meeting on 24 November, Hywel Dda university health board will consider options for temporary changes to the opening hours of the paediatric ambulatory care unit at Withybush hospital. This is an operational matter for the health board.
Vaughan Gething: I thank the Member for the follow-up points. On your first one, which you made earlier, as well, about the possibility of full closure, that’s not the planned option. I’ve seen that the recommended option is, indeed, a temporary reduction in hours, before returning to a 12-hour ambulatory care unit, supported by consultant cover in addition on rota from Glangwili. I’m clear that...
Vaughan Gething: I’m happy to reassure you that local families do not need to change access to care. You’ll have heard me answer Eluned Morgan’s question, and in particular the point about transport and access to care, and, indeed, if there is a need for a child to be transported to a different point to receive their care, then the health board, together with the Welsh ambulance service trust, should...
Vaughan Gething: I thank the Member for the points that he’s made. Now, I go back to the fact that we’re talking about options for a temporary change to the service, and that’s the point. To try and talk about these as if this is a done deal for the long-term future of the service is simply not the case. That is simply not what the health board are proposing to do. And it really is important that...
Vaughan Gething: Thank you for the points made. And, again, I recognise and recall the same conversation about improving the community service in paediatrics, to make sure that children’s care is properly anticipated and managed. It’s much better for the families and much better for the child to make sure that, wherever that care is being undertaken, it’s undertaken in as planned a manner as possible....
