Mark Isherwood: What consideration did the Cabinet Secretary give to economic development in North Wales when allocating the Welsh Government draft budget?
Mark Isherwood: 6. How does the Welsh Government ensure that patients in Wales have access to orthopaedic surgeons? OAQ52936
Mark Isherwood: On a number of occasions over the years of devolution, Welsh Government has produced pots of money to reduce waiting times if they've become excessive. In 2017-18, the median waiting time for knee surgery in Betsi Cadwaladr University Local Health Board was 339 days, up 95 days on the previous year. Over 61 per cent of those currently waiting for trauma and orthopaedic operations are waiting...
Mark Isherwood: It's 18 months since I asked the First Minister here to ensure that the business case for a new medical school in Bangor included dialogue with Liverpool medical school, after the north Wales local medical committee had expressed concern that the previous supply from there, where many of their generation of GPs had come from, had largely been severed. In addition, therefore, to the medical...
Mark Isherwood: Endoscopy services are key to ensuring the early diagnosis and detection of cancers such as bowel cancer, and 104 patients in north Wales needing an endoscopy are waiting over 24 weeks or 168 days. Betsi Cadwaladr University Local Health Board's latest board meeting said that endoscopy have maximised this with backfill and additional weekend capacity, and a third endoscopy run in the west,...
Mark Isherwood: Despite warnings year after year by the Royal College of General Practitioners and the British Medical Association, the number of registered GPs working in Wales is at its lowest level in five years. In 2014, the Royal College of General Practitioners warned that the share of Welsh NHS funding for patient care in general practice had been falling for years, and in the same year the north...
Mark Isherwood: 1. What is the Welsh Government's policy to increase economic prosperity in North Wales? OAQ52981
Mark Isherwood: Diolch. In March 2016, the UK Government announced that it was opening the door to a growth deal for north Wales, and called on the Welsh Government to devolve powers down and invest in the region as part of the deal. The bid was submitted to both Governments last December, including calls for the delegation of powers by Welsh Government to north Wales, so that it could operate in an...
Mark Isherwood: Could I call for a single statement on rail services in north Wales? On Saturday I attended the Wrexham-Bidston Rail Users Association's annual general meeting, where the chair referred us to Transport for Wales's live travel updates on Saturday, which showed that, with the exception of minor delays at Cardiff-Shrewsbury and Cardiff-Swansea, all the other south Wales services had good...
Mark Isherwood: You state that one of the defining features of the work of the ministerial taskforce for the south Wales Valleys has been its ongoing engagement with people living and working in the Valleys, stressing the importance of talking to and listening to people and local communities. Of course, co-production, which is in Welsh legislation, goes further, very much in terms of the sustainability duty...
Mark Isherwood: Thank you for your statement. You say that standards are being set for training professionals, and refer to 135,000 people trained. Of course, training is an event rather than a process, and awareness isn't the same as understanding and acceptance of issues as we go forward. So, how do you propose to embed this, not as a one-off online or face-to-face training event, but as an ongoing...
Mark Isherwood: You refer to healthy relationships education for children and young people, preventing them from becoming victims or perpetrators, and the introduction of relationships and sexuality education in schools from 2022, but schools not having to wait until the formal roll-out if they feel sufficiently equipped before then to do this. When I questioned you on this recently in the Equality, Local...
Mark Isherwood: Thank you. Thanks to all contributors. As Darren Millar highlighted, a letter by local government leaders, signed by them all, warned that cuts to preventative services would be a false economy. As the chief exec of the Welsh Local Government Association told committee, there was an announcement of £30 million going into regional partnership boards, but that's in the NHS budget line. Why not...
Mark Isherwood: Diolch. As the UK work and pensions Secretary Amber Rudd stated last week: 'I know there are problems with universal credit, despite its good intentions. I’ve seen them for myself. I will be listening and learning from the expert groups in this area who do such good work. I know it can be better.' She added that the UN special rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights, on his visit to...
Mark Isherwood: Because she has lived experience and actually because the support mechanism was launched in Wales in 2013, which this lot have tried to sabotage. The Department for Work and Pensions have been working with the devolved administrations since 2012 on plans for its roll-out, and issued the universal credit local support services framework in 2013, developed with partners including the Welsh...
Mark Isherwood: The Holyhead infrastructure prospectus, summarising opportunities for jobs, growth and investment on Anglesey, said that there's a need to complete the enabling projects detailed in the report prior to the private sector investment, otherwise opportunities cannot be maximised. Earlier this year, the Economy, Infrastructure and Skills Committee report on enterprise zones stated, 'In Anglesey,...
Mark Isherwood: The great Mabinogion include the first known Arthurian romances in Welsh, critically written before Geoffrey of Monmouth wrote his false accounts for the Norman courts. Do you agree that we should be reclaiming those stories for Wales?
Mark Isherwood: Despite years of warnings by the North Wales Local Medical Committee, general practice in Wales received the lowest percentage share of the NHS budget of any part of the UK last year. That's the key reason why so many practices in north Wales have closed. How will you address that share of funding gap, as opposed to funding gap, and divert provision to deliver services, bringing people who...
Mark Isherwood: The Prime Minister has the horrendous task of reconciling many conflicting opinions and priorities, whilst also seeking to honour the referendum result, deliver a new comprehensive, bold and ambitious free trade agreement, protect people's jobs and security, and maintain the integrity of our United Kingdom. As the UK international trade Secretary said this summer, there had to be...
Mark Isherwood: What dialogue have you had with the chief executive of Flintshire County Council since he wrote to all councillors there on 16 November, asking them to back the #BackTheAsk campaign to get a fair share of Welsh national funds, which was, on 20 November, backed unanimously by members of all parties to take, quote, 'the fight down to the local government department in Cardiff'?
