Vaughan Gething: Thank you for the question. We rehearsed this argument before the election and I’m sure we will do more than once afterwards. I don’t see the Member’s re-election to his constituency as a referendum on this particular issue. There are real challenges in this area between a very clear demand for locality versus the quality of the service that is provided as well, and you’ll be aware...
Vaughan Gething: Thank you for the two questions. Yes, I’ll be happy to arrange a convenient time to visit both hospitals and to meet staff in the midwifery units. On your specific point about the dedicated ambulance vehicle, this was an important part of providing confidence about the service to make sure that there was emergency transfer, if needed, to take women and their babies to Glangwili. In many...
Vaughan Gething: I thank the Member for the question. In understanding what we do, I go back to saying that we have to be led by the evidence and the advice. To make this work, it’s perhaps instructive to look at what happened at Prince Philip—not at the distinct model there, but that Prince Philip Hospital stopped being an issue because clinicians within Prince Philip Hospital had a conversation about...
Vaughan Gething: I thank the Member for the question. We will not establish a Welsh cancer drugs fund. The English cancer drugs fund will be scrapped at the end of this month. We are prioritising the establishment of a new treatment fund as one of our key commitments in the first 100 days. I expect to be able to tell Members more about it. The fund will support the speedy introduction of innovative and...
Vaughan Gething: Well, we, of course, already undertake a range of mobile cancer treatment services, and you will be very well aware of our ambition to undertake more care within the community—that shift from secondary to primary care. It’s an important part of what we wish to do. That would certainly be the case within cancer services as well. We have had well-established programmes, working with...
Vaughan Gething: I thank the Member for her question, and she is right; she has taken a very consistent interest in this particular area. You’ll be aware that, in the discussions we had prior to the formation of this Government, in the compact with Plaid Cymru, an IPFR review was one of the things that we agreed upon between our parties. I expect to come forward with some proposals, after...
Vaughan Gething: I thank the Member for the question. One of the points I’ll make is that, on life sciences and the life sciences industry, we’ve actually got a good record on seeing development here, and the proton beam developments that could take place in south-east Wales are being led by the private sector, and that could lead to improved access in the NHS here in Wales but also potentially improve...
Vaughan Gething: I expect health boards to work with their partners to ensure people have timely access to emergency care services when they need them. The national programme for unscheduled care is driving a whole-system approach to facilitate sustainable change and improvement for unscheduled health and care services across Wales.
Vaughan Gething: Thank you for the follow-up question. I expect that when figures are published for April, we’ll see a further improvement on 12-hour waits, and Cardiff and Vale University Local Health Board have actually done a relatively good job in driving down the number of 12-hour waits. They know, from my own point of view, that I expect to see further progress made so that there are fewer and fewer...
Vaughan Gething: I thank the Member for the question. It highlights the fact that there are UK-wide pressures, and we’re taking different approaches to them. In England, they’ve taken an approach that has reduced funding into adult social care. We spend 7 per cent higher on health and social services per head, or £172, more in Wales than in England. We’ve also taken a different approach because of the...
Vaughan Gething: We published a strategic plan for primary care services in Wales early last year, backed up by significant annual investment of over £40 million. The First Minister also recently made a commitment to look at increasing GP numbers in Wales, in addition to other healthcare professionals who can support GPs.
Vaughan Gething: The health board has made positive progress on a number of fronts under special measures, but I expect to see continued and sustained improvement in key areas before it is removed from special measures.
Vaughan Gething: We are investing £750,000 in the roll-out of the Choose Pharmacy information technology application to 400 pharmacies across Wales by March 2018. This will enable health boards to optimise the contribution of community pharmacies in the delivery of high-quality primary care services in Wales.
Vaughan Gething: While I am encouraged to see a further decline in the number of adults smoking in Wales, it is clear many of us continue to eat and drink too much, and are not exercising enough. I will be making an oral statement on the results in Plenary on 21 June.
Vaughan Gething: The Welsh Government provides support to improve workplace health and well-being through a number of approaches including Healthy Working Wales, NHS occupational health services and the European social fund-funded in-work support service.
Vaughan Gething: My priorities are to deliver and integrate more services locally, improve access and to continue to address service sustainability through our national primary care plan and I expect health boards to develop primary care clusters and to invest in the capacity and capability of the workforce.
Vaughan Gething: Tinnitus therapy advice and counselling services are available in Wales although they do not all use the tinnitus retraining methodology.
Vaughan Gething: We already invest in training opportunities across Wales. I recognise that there are difficulties in recruiting to some training programmes in north Wales. We are working with the Wales Deanery and others to identify steps to address this situation, including more focused planning arrangements and different training models.
Vaughan Gething: Thank you, Presiding Officer. The Welsh health survey gives us an overview of the state of the nation’s health. It covers health status, health service use and health-related behaviour. I’m making a statement today on the headline messages, but there will be more learning and analysis of the survey later in the year. The recently published Welsh health survey 2015 shows us that 19 per...
Vaughan Gething: I thank the Member for his series of comments and questions and the broadly positive start, and I too look forward to seeing more learning from the survey as it undergoes more analysis to help inform where we are and where we want to be. I’ll start with your point about e-cigarettes. Just to reiterate that we continue to keep the evidence on e-cigarette use under review, both in terms of...
