Vaughan Gething: Thank you for the series of detailed questions. I appreciate we only have 20 minutes on the agenda for the three questions, so I'll try and be brief in response. The questions about the money and the broader look back to winter this year to try and learn for the next year, I think I dealt with in response to Angela Burns. There's a question for the Government, but also for the health service,...
Vaughan Gething: Thank you, Deputy 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 our programme for government, 'Taking Wales Forward', but this of course came from an early agreement with Plaid Cymru to establish the review. That commitment was further emphasised in our national strategy, 'Prosperity for...
Vaughan Gething: Thank you for the response, and I'll try and respond briefly to each of the eight areas of questions that you've raised. And, of course, at the outset we agreed not to publish a new vision to replace 'Together for Health' because we're going to have a review. It would have been odd if I had said, 'Here is our view for the future of the health service, and then let's have the parliamentary...
Vaughan Gething: Thank you for those questions. A couple of comments, and then I'll try and address, I think, your five specific areas of questions. I want to start by recognising, of course, the role of Plaid Cymru in this review coming into being. We tried before the last election to have cross-party agreement on a health and care review and there's something about timing in all of this and recognising...
Vaughan Gething: Thank you for those points. I recognise someone who was previously on the other side of the table as the former Unison head of health—other health service trade unions are, of course, available. But you were right that this is a challenge for all of us, for all of us in this place. Because, as I said, choosing not to do something is still a choice, and I think it's a really important point...
Vaughan Gething: I thank the Member for most of what she said. There were some points where we'd have to part company on agreement. I don't actually think that fraud related to the European Union and EHIC cards is a big issue that will undermine the future of the service. The challenge that we face in both need and demand, in having a rising and ageing population, in the challenges over money, I do not think...
Vaughan Gething: Thank you for the comments. You've been consistent in taking an interest in this area, both formally and informally in conversations that we've had. I think the first point that I'd make is that, for all the criticism that's made of NWIS, they have actually delivered a number of things that we're really proud of. If you think about the response in terms of security, the differential where we...
Vaughan Gething: Thank you, Presiding Officer, and I'd like to thank Members for their contributions today, and the consideration that they've given to the concept of providing herbal cannabis to patients for medicinal use. I recognise the very genuine and cross-party interest in this subject, and a very sensible debate, I think, it's been, about—. But, before I go into the heart of the Government response,...
Vaughan Gething: I don't think that's a fair characterisation of the way in which medicines are made available in the national health service. There's a challenge here about saying, 'There's an unmet need', and 'How do we get an effective, licensed, safe product available on the national health service to do that?', and simply saying, 'The answer is to make cannabis available medicinally'. I'll come on to...
Vaughan Gething: —and that is the most scientific and impartial method to ensure that patients receive safe and effective medicines.
Vaughan Gething: I don't think that's borne out, actually. I'll try and go through why in the remaining time available. Because what the motion advocates is the use of herbal cannabis and circumventing our long-established and respected regulatory and appraisal processes. Those processes are in place to safeguard patients and ensure public money is being spent on proven clinical and cost-effective treatments....
Vaughan Gething: Well, I think the next parts in my contribution may help with that. I said earlier that there are 60 different cannabinoids that the manufacturers of Sativex had to identify, then go through those that would help with particular conditions. The manufacturer of Sativex is currently developing three new cannabis-based medicines to help treat epilepsy, schizophrenia and autism spectrum...
Vaughan Gething: Thank you, Deputy Presiding Officer, and I'm grateful to the committee for undertaking this inquiry into primary care clusters. The Welsh Government set out, yet again, in 'Prosperity for All' that we continue to see primary care clusters as key catalysts for reform and change in local healthcare. I want clusters to continue to develop their role as local collaborative mechanisms for...
Vaughan Gething: It also means that services are better able to manage demand and, increasingly, capacity and better manage workloads. For example, the bay cluster in Swansea makes prudent use of a paramedic to carry out house calls. That has resulted in people, often the elderly, being seen sooner and not having to wait for the GP to finish surgery. And, in the Llanelli cluster, they've appointed two social...
Vaughan Gething: Thank you, Deputy Presiding Officer. Last year, I launched the Welsh Government's £80 million new treatment fund. This was, of course, a key pledge to the people of Wales at the last Assembly election. My statement today highlights how the new treatment fund has delivered faster, more consistent access to new medicines. It marks a highly successful first full operational year of the fund....
Vaughan Gething: These medicines have, of course, been approved by NICE or the AWMSG to treat a wide range of diseases. The list and scope of the therapeutic areas covered are too long for me to list here, but it includes medicines for a wide variety of treatment including arthritis, multiple sclerosis, epilepsy, asthma and rare conditions like Fabry disease. Just over 40 per cent of the medicines...
Vaughan Gething: Yes. On that last point about hepatitis C elimination, I don't think it's actually about the availability of the drugs. We're really fortunate in Wales to have a national strategy, and within the clinical community, the group of clinicians are very proud of having a national approach. Just because the centre is in Cardiff—. It is a genuinely national approach that people buy into and, to be...
Vaughan Gething: I'll deal with your last point first. I recently launched Health Technology Wales, which is a way of looking at non-medicines to look at technology within the health service and for its more rapid adoption. We have a range of different ways in which we've tried to do that in the past—the efficiency through technology programme has had a good record of having a range of things at pace and...
Vaughan Gething: Thank you for the series of points and questions. I'll try to be as brief as possible, including those points that I think I've tried to answer in previous questions. I welcome the recognition of all three other parties in the Chamber that the new treatment fund has delivered a significant improvement in access. It was in the first six months that the average time was 17 days—just to...
Vaughan Gething: Hywel Dda university health board is currently testing and narrowing down options for its transforming clinical services programme. A shortlist of options will be released publicly in the spring, followed by a formal public consultation, which will inform any final decisions of the health board.
