Vaughan Gething: Diolch, Dirprwy Lywydd. On Friday, I published the report of the task and finish group that I established to review the use of vaginal synthetic mesh tape and sheets in the treatment of stress urinary incontinence and pelvic organ prolapse. This report provides a comprehensive account of the use of mesh in Wales and the problems associated with it. Importantly, it makes recommendations on...
Vaughan Gething: Thank you for those questions and comments. I make no apology for saying that the hernia issues are separate matters, with a different group of surgeons and a different process in place to understand the level of complications that exists. This has been unashamedly focused on women's health issues, and, bluntly, if the same level of complications had affected men's health issues, I...
Vaughan Gething: Thank you for those comments. There are broadly three questions provided in there. On the point about whether women who were not believed, and the battle to be believed, and how that will be overcome, well, the significant publicity around this—again generated by, as I said in my initial statement, the courageous and determined women who raised the isue—is part of that. The patient...
Vaughan Gething: I'll try to deal with the point the first question raised about the implementation group and the timescale to complete their work. I will of course report back to Members, but as the group has yet to meet, and to consider how to take forward those recommendations, I'm not in a position to give an undertaking or commitment on that today, which I hope Members will understand. But I will report...
Vaughan Gething: Thank you. I can confirm that in relation to your last point, and I'll link that to the cross-border work on evidence and progress, as I indicated in response to the first set of questions, the audit being undertaken in England is on an experimental basis and has not been undertaken in that way before. And I will, of course, be interested in the evidence provided by that and officials are...
Vaughan Gething: Yes, I really do recognise the life-changing consequences that mesh complications have had for a number of women, including the correspondence and your questions in this Chamber and the conversations we've had outside it, about the physical, social and financial consequences, but also about the very real impact on people's relationships, not just with partners, but with a whole range of other...
Vaughan Gething: Obviously, I can't comment on individual matters that I'm not aware of, but your constituent should approach the health board where the procedure was undertaken. I would expect that information to be made readily available to him. I also need to deal with the point about hernia that I mentioned in response to Janet Finch-Saunders at the outset. Of course, hernia operations are undertaken on...
Vaughan Gething: I'll deal with—I think there are three particular points coming from that. The first is on a point you've made previously about physiotherapy, and what I'll do is I'll try and make sure that someone from the chief nurse's office is able to provide us with a note on care for women after pregnancy and to understand the role of physiotherapy. I know you've made the point in particular about...
Vaughan Gething: Formally, Llywydd.
Vaughan Gething: Diolch yn fawr, Llywydd. I welcome the opportunity to respond to the issues raised in today's debate. We will be voting against the motion tabled by UKIP. We believe that this Bill will help to make a real difference in reducing hazardous and harmful levels of alcohol and drinking, and the harms this causes to communities across Wales. The Public Health (Minimum Price for Alcohol) (Wales)...
Vaughan Gething: Yes.
Vaughan Gething: Yes. We've already written to the Advertising Standards Authority about a range of matters, and officials do continue to have a dialogue, not just about this Bill but about a wider suite of measures to try and change individual behaviour, but also within the alcohol industry itself, because it's actually not that long ago that most beers, lagers and ciders sold in pubs were significantly less...
Vaughan Gething: Thank you for the question. A state-backed scheme will be introduced to provide clinical negligence indemnity insurance for GPs in Wales. The scheme, which is planned to come into force from April 2019, will cover all contracted GPs and other health professionals working in NHS general practice.
Vaughan Gething: Thank you for that follow-up question. I'm delighted for the acknowledgement of the support and the welcome that GPs have provided both through the Royal College of General Practitioners and in particular through the British Medical Association. We've worked alongside the BMA, as the trade union for general practitioners, to work through not just the challenges of indemnity, but how we...
Vaughan Gething: Well, this has been work that has been ongoing over many months through direct engagement with the ministerial taskforce that I set up to look at primary care, not just about recruitment issues, but a wider range of issues, and I look forward to the BMA coming back to present matters in the coming months for that meeting. And there's something here about the time that Ministers engage in in...
Vaughan Gething: We'll be looking for the best scheme possible, bearing in mind the interests of the service, the staff who work in it and, of course, the people who rely upon it. I want to make sure that GPs in Wales are certainly not disadvantaged compared to their counterparts in England. Any of these questions, though, must rely on us doing the due diligence to look at the potential liabilities that may...
Vaughan Gething: Thank you, Dirprwy Lywydd. I'm happy to respond to today's debate, opened by Hefin David, and happy to note that the Government will support the motion. But, in particular, I want to start by recognising the direct human impact and the experiences of people who are not just taking part in this debate today, but are outside watching, or will look at it afterwards—not just about the direct...
Vaughan Gething: The cancer implementation group has a national programme called detecting cancer early, which looks at access to diagnostic testing, symptom awareness and screening uptake. That group is funding two pilots in south Wales, covering the whole of Cwm Taf and ABMU health boards, that aim to identify early stage cancers that typically present with more difficult to identify symptoms. The vague...
Vaughan Gething: Thanks for the question. I made a written statement on 11 May about the recommendations of the breastfeeding task and finish group. One of the recommendations was the creation of a national breastfeeding action plan and a strategic oversight group to support delivery. I expect work on the implementation of the action plan to commence in July 2018.
Vaughan Gething: Thank you for the comments and the questions. We do recognise that both initiation rates and continuing rates of breastfeeding are not where we want to be and this is not a challenge for mothers; it's a broader challenge for all of us about not just being supportive partners, but actually being more supportive about the environment that is created, where lots of women are put off...
