Vaughan Gething: Thank you for the question. I recently announced a number of interventions to improve sexual health in Wales, including a pilot for online testing in the Hywel Dda university health board area, and a project to provide self-sampling HIV tests to those attending pre-exposure prophylaxis clinics. This work will inform future developments in service provision across Wales.
Vaughan Gething: Well, I'm genuinely encouraged both by the work we're doing on PrEP, but also in the new pilot that I've announced. The work on PrEP is important, because, if you recall, when I gave a statement to this Chamber previously, we had picked up a number of people in the pre-testing, before providing PrEP—a number of people undiagnosed with HIV—so they were able to actually begin treatment for...
Vaughan Gething: We expect to learn an awful lot from the PrEP study we're engaged in—not just people presenting themselves, because it is a genuinely nationwide point, but the broader engagement with sexual health services. So, the point about making testing easier—it's all part of trying to reduce stigma as well. There's a challenge about people coming forward to take advantage of the testing that is...
Vaughan Gething: I'm happy to do so. Immunisation uptake rates in Wales remain at the top of international benchmarks and are comparable to other UK countries. The vast majority of children in Wales are fully immunised before they start school. Uptake of childhood immunisations in north Wales is above the Wales average for most programmes.
Vaughan Gething: Thank you for the follow-up question. There were essentially two parts to the follow-up question. Actually, over the last year we've made real progress on NHS workers, in particular front-line workers, in actually undertaking the vaccine. Four years or so ago, when I was given the opportunity to work in the health department, the level of vaccine uptake within our NHS workers was considerably...
Vaughan Gething: I'm happy to confirm that we work very well with a range of third sector organisations, including those people promoting dementia friends. I've met with Boots, for example, and because of the leadership in Wales, every Boots store in Wales has dementia friends on its staff, and they're looking to roll that out in the rest of the Boots company in other parts of the United Kingdom. Actually,...
Vaughan Gething: As the Member for Caerphilly will know, I launched the Good Work training toolkit in Ysbyty Ystrad Fawr more than a year ago, and that's been developed by staff within the service working with the third sector so that we do understand the training needs of staff to provide that genuinely person-centred care for people with dementia—to understand what matters to them, to understand how being...
Vaughan Gething: I think this conversation, the conversation we've had and regularly have within this place and around it, is part of dealing with that stigma, for people to recognise that more and more people have dementia and will do in the future. It is a society-wide challenge and not something that people need to feel ashamed about at all. The stigma, though, often comes from people not wanting to...
Vaughan Gething: Yes. The Welsh Government does not routinely collect cancer survival data at health board level. However, all-Wales figures show one-year survival has improved by 3.2 percentage points between 2005-09 and the last reported five-year period of 2010-14, and five-year survival has improved by 3.3 percentage points over the same period of time. There is, of course, more to do.
Vaughan Gething: I recognise the campaign in this area and in others over the age profiles for our national screening programmes and, indeed, bids for conditions not currently covered by screening programmes to continue. We, as does every other UK Government, follow the expert advice from the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation, an independent expert body that gives us advice on the very best...
Vaughan Gething: Mark, it is absolutely something that takes up time and attention within the Government and within the health service. The national health service Wales executive board has considered further action on endoscopy services. We're having an action plan to try to understand how we have better capacity in kit and also people, and how we do so properly. It's not just about the new faecal...
Vaughan Gething: I'll be happy to do so, and I hope your question hasn't been answered by your colleague. I wrote to all Assembly Members on 1 November advising about arrangements for the supply of flu vaccines this year in the light of the phased delivery of the recommended vaccine for people aged 65 years of age and over.
Vaughan Gething: Yes, I'm happy to reprovide the reassurance that you seek. This year, we have a better, more effective vaccine for people aged over 65. It is a phased supply—that was a challenge in the manufacture and supply of that vaccine, rather than GPs or community pharmacies underordering. By the end of this month—by the end of November—the supplies should be available in Wales and across the...
Vaughan Gething: Yes, we are working with the UK Government, which has instructed medicines manufacturers and suppliers to, at present, maintain an extra six weeks’ worth of their products, over and above their usual reserves. We will, of course, continue to work with the UK Government to make sure that we do all that we can should the United Kingdom leave the European Union.
Vaughan Gething: The challenge comes with a 'no deal' Brexit and our ability to prepare for the possibility that the United Kingdom crashes out of the European Union at the end of March next year. I don't think I should try to provide false reassurance that all will be well. For every Government, though, in the UK, it is in every Government's interests to make sure that we do all that we can. So, this is...
Vaughan Gething: There are real practical conversations going on between every health department from every nation within the UK, and on this, actually, it's an issue where I and the Scottish health secretary have written to Matt Hancock seeking a meeting to try and put some of the politics aside and to have a practical, face-to-face conversation about what each of us can do. I've yet to have a positive...
Vaughan Gething: Yes. We recognise there are challenges but remain committed to supporting our hard-working GPs and their practice teams throughout Wales. Betsi Cadwaladr University Local Health Board has recently appointed a new executive director of primary care and community services, Dr Chris Stockport, and he will lead and oversee the adoption and adaptation of the primary care model for Wales across the...
Vaughan Gething: There is always a challenge in linking population growth and housing development with the provision of a range of services including healthcare services. We'll have the same practical challenge in delivering Wylfa Newydd as well. It's a challenge and it's about a conversation with local general practice themselves, but also the wider team as well. The health board are developing a north Wales...
Vaughan Gething: The way in which we allocate finance across the service is to try and meet current and future needs. In particular, we're investing in a healthier Wales, and I've made it very clear that as activity is moved around our health and care system, I expect resources to be moved around to enable that to happen. If we look at the broader definition of primary care for all those different primary...
Vaughan Gething: Yes, I'm happy to do so. By the end of October, the new treatment fund had provided patients throughout Wales with faster access to 146 new medicines for a wide range of medical conditions. The average time taken to make medicine available is now 17 days. That is a reduction of 81 per cent.
