Vaughan Gething: I recognise some of the comments that you've made about the historic nature of some of the challenges that the board faced at its inception in the way it was organised. That was set out in the Ockenden report we're discussing today, and, indeed, that was set out in the HASCAS review, and it's been really clear that the structure that was implemented at the time was not implemented in an...
Vaughan Gething: I'll start with your final point, because your colleague Rhun ap Iorwerth also talked about structure and restructure and what that might mean. I'm not clear at all what you're proposing in terms of the restructure of the health board, because we need to be clear about whether you're talking about more than one health board, how it would be achieved and how that would actually deliver better...
Vaughan Gething: As I have said, there is an 18-month improvement framework with a range of measures that we will test the health board against, and that won't just be my assessment; it will be the advice that is given by the chief exec of NHS Wales, the Wales Audit Office and Healthcare Inspectorate Wales. That assurance is not just the Government marking its own work or coming up with a convenient excuse or...
Vaughan Gething: Thank you, Deputy Presiding Officer, and thank you to the Member in charge for his statement and for the conversations we have had over a period of time leading up to today. The Welsh Government remains committed to supporting and improving the range of services available for children and adults with autistic spectrum disorder, their families and carers. Whilst Wales has led the way in the UK...
Vaughan Gething: Thank you for the question. Our stroke delivery plan provides a framework for action by health boards and trusts, working with their partners. It sets out the expectations of all stakeholders to prevent, diagnose and treat stroke in people of all ages and to ensure they can return to independence as quickly as possible.
Vaughan Gething: Thank you for the question. It does highlight some of the challenges we face in trying to generate both integration and joint services between health and local government partners together with the third sector, but also some of the undeniable challenges we face with continued reductions in public funding. The good news is, of course, that overall, we're seeing stroke survival rates...
Vaughan Gething: Yes, you're right to point out the role of allied health professionals and frequently in our debates about health in this place, we talk about doctors, and maybe nurses, and we ignore lots of the other healthcare professionals who are important in making the whole system work. And in this area, early rehabilitation, it is that earlier access to a range of different therapists that makes...
Vaughan Gething: Thank you for the question in your new role on the back benches, figuratively at least. I expect all health boards to plan and provide services that meet the needs of their people. This includes the provision of sufficient numbers of beds in different settings across our healthcare system to meet local and national expected demand. That, of course, must take into account the fluctuations in...
Vaughan Gething: I thank you for that question. I really do wish you well in your new role in the Chamber. I expect to see you on many occasions in these questions, no doubt. When you actually look at our bed numbers, last year we had over 400 additional beds throughout the whole system created to deal with winter pressure. So, that's essentially the size of a reasonably sized district general hospital of...
Vaughan Gething: I recognise the distressing picture that you paint, which spells out people's real experience within our system. We regularly talk about when healthcare goes right—as we should do to celebrate that, as we have done this year—but we recognise that when healthcare goes wrong it can have a significant and continuing impact on people's general health and well-being. I'll be more than happy to...
Vaughan Gething: I recognise the point you're making, and we've had several discussions outside the Chamber about issues in ABMU and I know you've been engaged directly with the health board. In terms of the health boards discharging their responsibilities on this issue, they of course need to have a plan about the appropriate number of beds in the appropriate part of the system and the staff to go with them....
Vaughan Gething: I welcome Angela Burns back following the reshuffle. I look forward to many continuing jousts of varying natures and temperatures. The guidance you refer to has already been issued. We've already issued guidance about the use of the criteria for the transformation fund. And, more than that, in terms of the second part of your question—the confidence that we'll see real progress—I've made...
Vaughan Gething: Thank you for that. I can confirm that the national board has already met, and its role is to have oversight for the progress in delivering 'A Healthier Wales', rather than, effectively, providing a second decision-making course for individual regional partnership boards agreeing on bids they want to make for transformation. That will still be my officials looking at those bids and then...
Vaughan Gething: I shall remind you of your recognition that we have to accept some projects won't succeed, if that happens. But, look, the cultural change point you make is one that I accept completely. But the transformation fund particularly will help to kick-start new models of care. That will be part of generating cultural change, but it won't do it in itself. If I said the transformation fund was the...
Vaughan Gething: Since the introduction of special measures, we have announced a range of improvement frameworks, a range of actions and support that we have taken. Of course, I'll be dealing with more of this in question 3, but you will have noticed over the summer, for example, the additional £6.8 million of investment we've made within the health board. The reasons why the health board performance has...
Vaughan Gething: I of course want Betsi Cadwaladr to succeed. I want it to deliver the sort of quality of healthcare that each of us, in every single community, would expect. Your proposal to break up the health board is not one that is supported by the overwhelming majority of staff within the health board—we've been through this in responses from them. And I don't believe that the structural...
Vaughan Gething: I tried to be polite to the Member in my second answer, to give him an opportunity to reconsider the track he was going down. I have to say that the orders are not just to re-engineer health in north Wales, but your plan—I assume on behalf of your party—to take a wrecking ball to the way we organise and run the national health service in Wales in every single part of the country is not...
Vaughan Gething: This Government has already taken an approach to promoting social prescribing and to developing the evidence base for its impact on physical and mental health. I've made a series of announcements about a range of projects that we are supporting with additional resource. You may have missed them; I'll happily direct you to them again. In addition to that, you may also want to take a look at...
Vaughan Gething: As I said in my first answer, I have announced additional funding to support particular social prescribing projects organised by a range of people in the voluntary sector in particular. Part of the challenge about social prescribing is often—these are low-cost or no-cost activities in any event—about encouraging people to make use of them. You may also wish to look at the national...
Vaughan Gething: I'm familiar with the primary care hub that sits within Public Health Wales and their report on social prescribing. There's a challenge, I think, for all of us in the way we talk about healthcare issues in this Chamber and with the wider public. I don't expect the public to become more familiar with the term 'social prescribing' in general terms or understand what it is, because there are a...
