Rhun ap Iorwerth: Thank you very much. Would the Member agree with me that we also need to use the excellent role models that we have in sports, for example, at the moment—we think of the Welsh team and players such as Ben Davies and Joe Allen—in order to ensure that young people look up to people who use the Welsh language?
Rhun ap Iorwerth: I’ve spoken in this Chamber on a number of occasions about the importance of diagnostic tests. It’s been drawn to my attention by GPs in my constituency that waiting times for endoscopy tests have reached worrying levels over the past few months, with talk of patients having to wait a year and seven months having got to the top of the list. Would the First Minister give a commitment to...
Rhun ap Iorwerth: I thank the Cabinet Secretary for the statement today. As it happens, the health committee here at the Assembly is having an inquiry into winter preparedness in the NHS. We’re looking forward to the evidence session with the Cabinet Secretary in the next few days. Yes, there is evidence that has been heard as part of our inquiry so far that does show elements of additional...
Rhun ap Iorwerth: Following the recent announcement of the Cabinet Secretary, some people have contacted me as they are very keen to protect some specific aspects of the work of Communities First for the future. Môn CF in Holyhead, for example, are very proud of several aspects of the work that they’ve been undertaking in the town, and I congratulate them on that work. They have emphasised that they’re...
Rhun ap Iorwerth: I’ve always fancied myself on the back of a motorbike and I had an opportunity a few days ago. Unfortunately, it wasn’t moving at the time—I haven’t passed a motorcycle test. But, I was in Holyhead outside Ysbyty Penrhos Stanley on the back of a wonderful motorbike called Elsa II, to draw attention to the launch of the new blood bike service in north-west Wales. For those of you who...
Rhun ap Iorwerth: Thank you, Llywydd. I move the motion and ask for your support to that motion tabled in my name. The future of NHS staff who have been trained abroad has come under the spotlight this year following the change in the political climate since the referendum on membership of the European Union. NHS staff trained overseas face uncertainty because of two main factors. One is the likelihood that...
Rhun ap Iorwerth: Thank you very much, and thanks to everyone who participated in this afternoon’s debate. Gadewch i mi ymateb yn syth i’r sylwadau a wnaeth cynrychiolydd UKIP. Rydym i gyd yn gwybod y dywedir wrthym nad oes unrhyw broblem gyda phobl sydd yn y DU ar hyn o bryd yn aros. Dyna’r math o sylw difeddwl, diystyr a oedd yn nodweddu’r ddadl Ewropeaidd. Mae’n ymddangos bod UKIP wedi gwneud...
Rhun ap Iorwerth: Thank you, Deputy Presiding Officer, for the opportunity to participate in this debate. It is an important debate, and I formally move the amendments in my name. We certainly welcome this debate. We support much of the wording of the motion, but certainly all of the sentiment that underpins the motion. Far too often, I think, when it comes to debates on how to provide care and social care and...
Rhun ap Iorwerth: I will turn to the amendments—there are a number of them. We won’t be supporting the Government amendments. We don’t feel that setting that cap of £50,000 reflects fairness in the system. We would prefer to see more progress towards putting an absolute end to this dementia tax that we currently have. Amendment 2, in our view, is irrelevant. The Welsh Government could reform the...
Rhun ap Iorwerth: It is well-known that survival rates of cancer are lower for those who receive a diagnosis through accident and emergency departments in hospitals. It’s also known that there is some inequality in terms of who is likely to get a diagnosis in an A&E department, and that the less wealthy are more likely to go through that process rather than going through alternative processes and getting...
Rhun ap Iorwerth: May I say that Eluned Morgan is doing a dangerous thing in starting to list companies in her region before the Member for Anglesey gets up to speak? Because I could speak at length about Melyn Môn, Y Cwt Mwg, Y Cwt Caws and Halen Môn—but I won’t do so. But the truth is, of course, that there are far too many relatively small food producers—some are larger—on Anglesey, and what I’m...
Rhun ap Iorwerth: Thank you very much, Chair. I just want to briefly endorse the final point made by Simon Thomas. I’m grateful that this issue has been aired in the Assembly and I welcome that very much. Innovation is something that I am generally eager to see us do more of in Wales. I think there’s something about the size of Wales and the scale of Wales that makes us an ideal place to innovate in a...
Rhun ap Iorwerth: Thank you very much, Deputy Presiding Officer. I’m pleased to open this debate, which calls for a focus on achieving a target of 28 days for diagnosis for those with cancer. This is a recommendation that was made by the independent cancer taskforce, which includes some of Europe’s finest clinicians, who said: Rydym yn argymell y dylid gosod uchelgais y bydd, erbyn 2020, 95% o gleifion a...
Rhun ap Iorwerth: Diolch, Ddirprwy Lywydd. We tabled this motion to give the Government an opportunity to align itself with clinical opinion, and to use the extra investment in diagnostic capacity to prioritise achieving this 28-day diagnostic target, which I haven’t plucked from the air; this has come from the people who know something about this. This could clear a bottleneck in the system and lead to...
Rhun ap Iorwerth: Thank you, Llywydd, and I move the amendment, which concentrates on one element of the report, if truth be told. The chief medical officer’s report reminds us again that the poorest communities pay a significant price in terms of their health, simply because they are poor and live with others in poverty. There is too much focus on occasion, I think, on the lifestyle choices made by...
Rhun ap Iorwerth: Plaid Cymru will be supporting this motion and the amendment. The recommendations made by the Welsh Affairs Committee are sensible ones, and I hope that Governments on both sides of the border consider them. A cross-border flow of patients is, of course, one of the facts of life across Europe, and certainly worldwide. I’m sure it often makes sense for a patient to cross a border to receive...
Rhun ap Iorwerth: I note that patients have been contacted to put their minds at ease that the practice is not at risk of closure. But people are very, very uneasy, the length and breadth of Wales, as surgery after surgery hands back the keys or have their contracts ended. As in Ruabon, what we see in many other places is a failure to be able to recruit the adequate number of GPs to keep a practice going, and...
Rhun ap Iorwerth: Will you give way?
Rhun ap Iorwerth: Thank you for giving way. Would the Member accept that the problem with a cancer treatment fund is that it ignores the fact that many other people suffer from illnesses that also require investment and innovation and so on, and that that is a barrier to one of the things that we’ve tried to achieve through these negotiations? [Interruption.]
Rhun ap Iorwerth: I’ll refer to specific elements of this budget in relation to health. The agreement, of course, represents only a part of the wider budget. In that wider budget there are some decisions relating to health and social care that we would hope Welsh Government would reconsider. We would also like more money to be given to health, but we are acutely aware that it isn’t just about the amount of...
