Vaughan Gething: Yes, and the point about Kadcyla is that, initially, the manufacturer had a cost price that was simply too high for the health service to pay, and that was the advice that health Ministers were given. That’s why the drug wasn’t available. There’s now been a reconsideration, and that’s very welcome. But the challenge is for any medication, whether it’s for Perjeta or any other drug,...
Vaughan Gething: Yes, I’m happy to respond. Of course, this particular drug has an average six months of extra life, and it’s about the value and the cost of that. Again, these are really difficult assessments to make, which is why, frankly, politicians are often the worst people to try and make that assessment. However, on the broader point about the understanding of what is in the pipeline, I’ve...
Vaughan Gething: We continue to invest significant financial resources in primary care and work collaboratively with BMA Wales, the Royal College of General Practitioners, and health boards to support hard-working GPs as part of improving primary care services for our public. Our choice to have a constructive dialogue with GPs stands in direct contrast to the approach across our border. We believe that we...
Vaughan Gething: The Government recognises the essential contribution of social care workers to good-quality care. We are implementing a comprehensive range of actions, including tackling zero-hours contracts and low pay, registering workers, developing career pathways and improving health and safety, all of which raise the status and standing of workers.
Vaughan Gething: The health board has maintained good performance in some key areas, including cancer and ambulance performance, while they have virtually eliminated over eight-week diagnostic waits. However, I have made it clear that performance in other areas, including for example orthopaedic waiting times, needs to improve.
Vaughan Gething: We are increasing funding for mental health services in Wales by an additional £20 million this year, taking the total spend to £629 million. The health board will determine how its increased allocation is used to improve services across Powys, based on its assessment of local need.
Vaughan Gething: We have been working closely with stakeholders to develop a dementia strategic action plan. The plan is due to be published in the autumn and will set out the key actions to be delivered by the Welsh Government and external partners to better support people affected by dementia.
Vaughan Gething: Health boards are responsible for providing safe, sustainable and high-quality care for their population. Our neurological conditions delivery plan sets out our ambitions in respect of treatment and support for people with conditions such as epilepsy. The plan is currently being updated and will be published later in the summer.
Vaughan Gething: Last month, I launched the second phase of our national and international campaign promoting Wales as a fantastic country for nurses in all specialities and at all stages of their career to train, work and live in Wales. In the short space of time the nurse campaign has been live, it is already receiving excellent feedback.
Vaughan Gething: We have a well-established national population bowel screening programme in Wales with over 150,000 men and women screened during 2015-16. We continually look for ways to increase uptake and recently announced new investment in better and more user-friendly testing, which will be rolled out during 2018-19.
Vaughan Gething: Thank you, Presiding Officer. The new treatment fund became active immediately after it was established in January of this year. The purpose of our new treatment fund is to speed up access to those medicines that have been proven to demonstrate clinical and cost effectiveness and therefore represent good value for money for the NHS resources and the public purse. This statement is to update...
Vaughan Gething: Thank you for the comments and questions. I think we have had a brief discussion about radium-223, which you mentioned last week, and I’m happy to repeat my undertaking to look at the issue and to report back—not just to you but, as it has been mentioned in the Chamber, I will make sure that a copy goes to other Members as well. I am sure that a number of them will take—[Interruption.]...
Vaughan Gething: Thank you for the three areas of questions. If I deal first with the financial point, then—you're right that the new treatment fund is not there to pay for all of the costs of medicines. It simply would not. If I can sort of point out, in the last three years, expenditure on new recommended medicines increased by a third, from £186 million to £247 million annually. So, the new treatment...
Vaughan Gething: Thank you for the comments and questions. The last point I think we tried to cover in the statement I made last week about our approach on precision medicine. That’s a different question to the new treatment fund, and I think that’s one that I’d be happy to discuss in more detail with Members on a future occasion. We’ll be launching our precision medicine strategy over the summer, and...
Vaughan Gething: [Inaudible.]—for sofosbuvir first and the treatment for hepatitis C, there was a previous individual choice made about this particular generation of funds, and moneys released specifically for it. We’re now talking about these drugs being generally available across the scheme. There’s a challenge about whether we deal with drugs on an individualised basis, which we have done in the...
Vaughan Gething: Thank you, Presiding Officer. I am pleased to have this opportunity to update Members on the NHS 111 pathfinder service in Wales. This is testing the practicalities of implementing a new and integrated service to help meet people’s urgent care needs. The Welsh 111 service brings together NHS Direct Wales and GP out-of-hours call handling and triaging into a single service. It provides many...
Vaughan Gething: Thank you for those comments and questions. I’ll come back to, if you like, the last bit and the first bit and try and take those together. On the point about financial resource, there has been a need for pump-priming to get the service to work, because this is an additional service in some ways, but also we’re trying to bring together things that already exists. So, it’s how current...
Vaughan Gething: In terms of making a statement now, I gave commitments to make a statement before the end of summer recess, so I’m delivering on the commitments that I had previously made. I’d have thought that’s a good thing for a Minister to do. Now, look, in terms of the evaluation—the broader point—we already have really positive feedback. In terms of the initial surveys that have been done,...
Vaughan Gething: Thank you for the comments and questions. I’m pleased that there’s recognition of a service innovation that the Member recognises her constituents have commented on positively. It is, of course, a service innovation based around the ABM area, with Carmarthenshire starting afterwards, so a real innovation starting in south-west and mid-west Wales. The challenge always is understanding what...
Vaughan Gething: Thank you, Presiding Officer. The establishment of the parliamentary review into the long-term future of health and social care in Wales was a key commitment in ‘Taking Wales Forward’. I announced the setting up of an independent panel of experts in November 2016, and today sees the publication of its interim report. The review will conclude this December, with the publication of a final...
