Baroness Mair Eluned Morgan: The recovery plan for planned care has been published and this sets out a number of challenging targets for health boards to achieve across all specialisms, including secondary gynaecological care services. The gynaecological board that has just been formed will develop plans to reach these targets. This will include a variety of actions, including e-advice, better referral and discharge...
Baroness Mair Eluned Morgan: Diolch yn fawr. I'm grateful for the opportunity of this short debate today to discuss the important topic of access to health services. Now, under a Labour Government here in Wales there are now more doctors, nurses and other healthcare professionals working in the NHS in Wales than ever before: over 104,000 people and 89,000 full-time equivalents—3,600 more staff than at the same time...
Baroness Mair Eluned Morgan: As part of the strategic programme for primary care, there is also a specific workstream on prevention and well-being. This workstream sets out a national primary proposal for mental health and well-being that will be the basis for planning and local provision. There are also other commitments under the programme for government for community services, and developing a national framework for...
Baroness Mair Eluned Morgan: Diolch, Dirprwy Lywydd. Further to ongoing concerns at Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board, many of which have been raised in this Siambr, I asked the chief executive of NHS Wales to hold an extraordinary tripartite meeting on 26 May as part of the NHS Wales escalation framework. The situation in Betsi is unacceptable and it needs serious work and effort to correct. Services are not as...
Baroness Mair Eluned Morgan: Following the tripartite meeting between the Welsh Government, Healthcare Inspectorate Wales and Audit Wales, the NHS chief executive has recommended that the targeted intervention status at Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board should be extended beyond mental health and governance issues to incorporate Ysbyty Glan Clwyd, focusing in particular on the vascular service and emergency...
Baroness Mair Eluned Morgan: Finally, it has become clear that the health board's current systems are largely reactive. External reviews have pointed to significant gaps in fundamental aspects of clinical service standards. That includes record keeping, incident management, team working, reporting concerns, leadership and morale. Many processes are in place, but there is not sufficient capacity in place and they're not...
Baroness Mair Eluned Morgan: Diolch yn fawr. I did, of course, offer a briefing to your political representative on the health committee, and I'm sure he communicated to you what that information contained. There is nothing scattergun about this approach. We formally had measures in relation to mental health and governance, and now we are targeting this additional intervention at the area where we have greatest concern,...
Baroness Mair Eluned Morgan: I am extremely aware of the seriousness of the situation, and it is clear that the situation in Betsi, in particular in those areas we've highlighted, is unacceptable. This is something that I made very clear to the chief executive and the chair when I met them last week. Can I be absolutely clear that this statement was earmarked before any suggestion of an opposition debate on this matter?...
Baroness Mair Eluned Morgan: If you don't mind, I would like to respond to that.
Baroness Mair Eluned Morgan: If you don't mind, I would like to respond to that. This is a statement that we've been preparing. Clearly, I did not want to put that on any agenda until I had the opportunity to speak to the chair and the chief executive of the health board, and that happened last week. And since then, we've been working very hard since that meeting last Tuesday to put in place these measures. So, we've...
Baroness Mair Eluned Morgan: Yes, I'm happy to have that meeting.
Baroness Mair Eluned Morgan: I believe that reorganisation at this point would be costly, it would be a distraction from the significant issues in relation to planned care, it would divert resources, and my focus at the moment is on patient care. There is nothing 'cut and paste' about this statement; I can assure you I've spent a lot of time working on it. I think that I will retain my focus, as I'm sure the board will,...
Baroness Mair Eluned Morgan: Thanks very much. There are some things, Gareth, that I expect to improve very quickly. I think there have already been some improvements in relation to vascular. There will be others that will take more time. The cultural shift that is necessary within the organisation—the acceptance that it needs to be a self-improving organisation—is something that will not be able to be switched on...
Baroness Mair Eluned Morgan: Thanks very much. First of all, on Improvement Cymru, you're quite right that it was an organisation that focused before on the 1000 Lives programme, which was a safety programme to support health boards and trusts in their efforts to reduce harm, waste and variation in Welsh healthcare. That included work on eliminating hospital-acquired pressure ulcers, assessing patients for risk of deep...
Baroness Mair Eluned Morgan: Well they don't, and that's the point. And that's the point. I think it's really important that we don't lose sight of the fact that, actually, there are people who are satisfied with the support and the service that they are having in Betsi.
Baroness Mair Eluned Morgan: I can confirm that the parent company of the Rutherford cancer centre in Newport has filed for insolvency and, as a result, the centre's likely to close later this week. The NHS in Wales is ensuring that patients who have started their treatment can complete their treatment.FootnoteLink
Baroness Mair Eluned Morgan: Thanks very much and, obviously, this news is desperately sad for the staff at Newport and the patients who are undergoing treatment there and, of course, for the local economy. Now, our priority, first and foremost, has been to ensure that people who are midway through their treatment can continue their therapy, whether they're NHS or whether they're private, as, obviously, patient safety is...
Baroness Mair Eluned Morgan: Thanks very much. Well, this is an issue that I was made aware of several weeks ago, so we've been, obviously, following the issue very closely and with the utmost concern for the people who are receiving their treatment there. Proton-beam therapy, as both speakers have been clear, is a very specialised approach to cancer treatment. The Welsh Government has no intention of intervening to...
Baroness Mair Eluned Morgan: Thanks very much. Well, the investment made into Rutherford was undertaken by a fund manager who was operating under contract to the Development Bank of Wales, and obviously that's at arm's length from the Welsh Government. So, in terms of due diligence, that would have been their responsibility. The fund is a portfolio fund and, of course, there are investments where there are high risks,...
Baroness Mair Eluned Morgan: Diolch yn fawr. Yesterday, I gave an oral statement concerning the escalation status of the Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board, in which I advised that I had received and accepted advice from Welsh Government officials that targeted intervention arrangements at the health board should be extended to include services at Ysbyty Glan Clwyd.
