Vaughan Gething: Thank you for the comments and the range of questions. I'll try and deal with them as well as I can in the time available. You, of course, referred to a range of figures at the start, particularly on the focus on handovers and others, and, of course, you have 475,000 calls to the service. But there's a recognition that there's more improvement needed on a more consistent basis across the...
Vaughan Gething: Thank you. I'll deal with that last point first. The challenge about dealing with staff well-being is obviously important, and it's an issue now. So, I've made it clear that that work should begin immediately in the conversation between employers and the trade unions. There is a regular ongoing conversation about staff well-being in every part of our national health service, especially as we...
Vaughan Gething: I agree with some of the broad narrative, even if I disagree with the conclusion that the Member reaches on some of the points. I'm sure that, with this report—. There will be an opportunity for the Government to appear before the committee to discuss it, at some point, I'm sure. I see that your neighbour isn't in the Chamber at the moment, but I'm sure that comrade Lloyd will want to have...
Vaughan Gething: Thank you for the comments and questions. The Wales Audit Office, with their own programme, regularly decide what to look at in terms of public service delivery, and I have no difficulty at all with the Wales Audit Office taking a greater interest in where we are. I'm sure that, at some point, they will want to, when they decide in their judgment that it's the right time to do so. On your...
Vaughan Gething: Thank you for the comments and questions, and I welcome the praise and acknowledgment for the model and the move to implement that. That was not a straightforward or necessarily popular decision at the time. I'll try and deal in turn with, I think, the four areas that you covered on bed cuts and the ambulance service. I don't believe that the numbers of beds are actually the challenge for...
Vaughan Gething: I can offer you reassurance that where a co-responder is the appropriate response, then that is what should take place. That should be a matter for clinical judgment as to the right response, rather than any kind of directive from myself or the head of the service not to use co-responders where they are the right resource for the right person at that time.
Vaughan Gething: Thank you, Deputy Presiding Officer. I made a statement on 5 June on the progress made in some key areas during the time that this health board has been in special measures, the significant challenges that remained, and plans to work with the health board during the next phase of improvement. My statement today will focus on the progress against those expectations that I set out for the...
Vaughan Gething: More robust appraisal and reporting and assurance systems are now being introduced by the new chair to further drive improved good governance. There has also been increased commitment to and impetus on partnership working from the board to support ‘A Healthier Wales’ and the transformation agenda. I was pleased to announce last week support from the transformation fund for a north Wales...
Vaughan Gething: Thank you for that range of comments and questions. I will, of course, keep the Chamber up to date on progress with special measures. As we have the reports and the updates on the special measures, I fully expect that statements will be made in this Chamber for Members to ask questions. I just want to correct a point at the outset: 24,000 people have not had to make new arrangements...
Vaughan Gething: Finance remains a major concern with a £35 million deficit control total set. That in itself would not be a significant marker of success, because success is living within the budget, and I've been very clear about that since my appointment. But we want to set realistic improvement targets to meet that control total and then to move on to be able to live within their means in future years....
Vaughan Gething: Thank you for the comments and questions. On scrutiny and accountability, as you said, I'm not going to comment on individual employees. The challenge for me is whether people can demonstrably do their job individually and collectively, and that's what the board scrutiny and oversight is for. That is my expectation, and, of course, the new chair is in a position where—as I've said in my...
Vaughan Gething: On the new spend, we recognised that the health board didn’t have the required level of capacity in some of the senior and middle management roles that actually make the service work to allow clinicians to do their job. So, we have a range of new directors in post to make sure that hospital management, but also management in community services, is improved. And I expect that we'll see, over...
Vaughan Gething: Thank you for the comments and questions. There were two broad questions. On an anonymous staff survey, actually, I took part in a number of anonymised staff surveys when I worked in my previous job in the private sector, both as an individual member of staff, when I was not a leader or manager, and then again when I was a leader and a manager, including a 360-degree review of how my staff...
Vaughan Gething: I'm listening.
Vaughan Gething: On the individual cases that you mentioned, I can't comment, but I'm not going to try and say that extreme long waits for treatment are acceptable. I've made very clear that they're not and there's a need for improvement not just in north Wales, but in every other part of our healthcare system if people wait too long. I rehearse again that the ombudsman has said objectively the complaints...
Vaughan Gething: Thank you, Deputy Presiding Officer. I am pleased to update Members on how NHS Wales, local authorities and other partners are planning to deliver resilient services for the winter. Last winter was one of the most difficult that our health and care services have faced in several years and saw increased challenges for our front-line staff. This was not, however, unique to Wales as health...
Vaughan Gething: Thank you for the wide range of questions. Some of your broader points were about capacity across the system—you started and ended on those points. On capacity within the beds part of the system, and not just within the hospital setting, but the ability to flex bed capacity, that requires staff, and that's the biggest limiting factor, rather than the physical beds and space themselves. But...
Vaughan Gething: I tried to cover the final point in the series of questions in the statement. I tried to refer to the range of bank holidays that take place between 21 December and 6 January. We know that's partly about bank holidays and also about the additional surge that we tend to see both after Christmas and after new year when people have put off going to seek help and advice, and after each of those...
Vaughan Gething: Thank you for those questions. To deal with your last point about reliable advice on the telephone, we'll either have staff who go through a series of options that is drawn up by a clinician to get to the right point about whether further advice is needed, but lots of our advice is actually directly with the clinician. If you ring up what would've been the NHS Direct Wales line—if you ring...
Vaughan Gething: Thank you for the questions. We could put up a series of the key actions from the local health board winter plans, but you'll know that, of course, every health board plans to flex its bed capacity during winter, because they know there will be a greater likelihood of needing to admit people, for the right reasons, and they're more likely to stay for longer, as I outlined earlier. But I'll...
