Vaughan Gething: Thank you for the series of questions. I'll begin with your last point, because it was covered in the amber review. There was a review of the conditions in the different categorisations, in red, amber 1 and amber 2, and your personal view is not supported by the clinicians who undertook the review. We're taking a proper evidence base as to the categorisation of healthcare conditions, but also...
Vaughan Gething: If I can deal with your last point first, we recognise that this being Wales and the weather vary in terms of the pressures that they drive. Cold weather tends not to produce a big spike in admissions at the time; it's actually roughly a week or so later when the cold weather produces the impact in terms of the additional number of people going in. We know that the first week of January is...
Vaughan Gething: Thank you for highlighting the success of that particular area of work, and, again, the ideas come and they are supported, but, actually, people need to deliver them and to make the difference. And it is encouraging to hear to hear the level of detail and the numbers of people that are benefiting and benefiting rapidly from the new service—that point about a rapid discharge and supporting...
Vaughan Gething: Turning to your final point first, I've been very clear that Betsi Cadwaladr need to do substantially better on both unscheduled care and planned care as well. They make up about half of the numbers of people waiting more than they should do for 36 weeks. Their 26-week percentage isn't where it should be either. The revised plans they've provided me with, with new scrutiny from the chair and...
Vaughan Gething: Thank you, Deputy Presiding Officer. I'm pleased to open today's debate on the substance misuse annual report 2018. Tackling substance misuse is a priority for the Welsh Government and a significant area to focus upon if we are to meet our ambitions for a healthier Wales. It is a major health issue that affects individuals, families and communities. Our overall aim continues to be to ensure...
Vaughan Gething: I'm also pleased to report that we're continuing to see positive outcomes for those in treatment: 86.5 per cent of people reported a reduction in their substance misuse treatment in 2017-18, up slightly from the year before. Whilst these improvements are welcome, there is clearly more work to do across the agenda. For example, the data shows a rise in alcohol-related specific deaths from 388...
Vaughan Gething: Thank you, Deputy Presiding Officer. I'd like to thank Members for what has been a largely constructive and considered debate on the substance misuse annual report for 2018. There is agreement across the Chamber that this is a challenging area, with complex problems to address. Our commitment to substance misuse services is critical, and, as I say, has been demonstrated by the additional...
Vaughan Gething: I will.
Vaughan Gething: The reality is we don't have the powers to introduce the facilities that I know you genuinely wish to see created here in Wales. I can't create the facilities that I don't have the powers to address. That's why I say there has to be a genuinely grown-up conversation about what we can do, what we will do with our powers, as well as that conversation with the Home Office and the police. Now, I...
Vaughan Gething: We've had regular conversations with Brynawel House and with the commissioners of services, to highlight the range of services that are already available, not just in alcohol and drug rehabilitation, but also in the developing area of alcohol-related brain damage. So, there is a continuing conversation for us to have. I do not wish Brynawel to cease to exist. I think it is a useful facility....
Vaughan Gething: Diolch, Llywydd. In 2016, the four party groups in this Assembly agreed to establish a parliamentary review of health and social care in Wales. The report of the parliamentary review was published in January 2018. That report acknowledged our world-leading legislative framework, the organisational structures that underpin it, and the dedication of our health and care workforce. But it also...
Vaughan Gething: Thank you for the largely constructive approach to the, I think, six or seven areas of questioning. On your first point, saying we are behind some UK areas in health and social care working together—we're actually ahead of others as well. It was a fact that was acknowledged by Stephen Dorrell—a former Conservative health Minister, now the chair of the NHS Confederation—when he came to...
Vaughan Gething: Across health and social care within the UK, there is real interest in what we're doing, and I want there to be a genuinely open and two-way process, where we're interested in not just selling and telling the rest of the UK what we're doing, but actually looking at what the rest of the UK is doing as well. It has to be a genuinely rounded approach. That was actually at the centre of the...
Vaughan Gething: Thank you for the questions across a range of areas. The £41.2 million is the figure for the seven bids that I have referred to. The larger amount that you refer to is the potential in the bids that have already been received that I am looking forward to reviewing—over this week is my ambition; I would like to make choices on those to allow people to get on with delivery. There are other...
Vaughan Gething: Thank you, Deputy Presiding Officer. I'd like to start by thanking the committee members for their work in producing the report 'Everybody's Business' on suicide prevention in Wales. And I do welcome today's debate. It's been difficult but important and a step forward in discussing the issue in what, in the main, has been a very mature and sensitive manner, because improving mental health and...
Vaughan Gething: Thank you, Deputy Presiding Officer. Can I start by thanking the petitioner and the Petitions Committee for bringing this matter forward for debate this afternoon? At the outset, I want to acknowledge the impact of prostate cancer, both physically and emotionally, on men and their families. I also recognise that some of the diagnostic tests, as we've heard, such as biopsies, can be unpleasant...
Vaughan Gething: Thank you, Presiding Officer. I am recommending that the Assembly consent to the legislative consent motion on the Healthcare (International Arrangements) Bill. As Members will be aware, I did not recommend that the Assembly should consent to the original legislative consent memorandum, laid on 15 November last year. This has been a prolonged and now positive engagement with the UK Government...
Vaughan Gething: The Welsh Government was the only devolved national Government to refuse consent early in the process as we wanted to see changes to the legislation. Because of our intervention and the changes we have led, I believe that this legislation is improved and the position of the devolved national Governments is better respected and reflected. That is why I am now recommending consent to the Bill...
Vaughan Gething: Thank you, Presiding Officer. I thank both Members for their contributions to the debate. The Chair of the Constitutional and Legislative Affairs Committee asked a series of highly detailed questions that I won't be able to properly answer at this point in time. I don't think I'd be able to do them justice. I will, however, write to the committee to pick up the points that are on the record...
Vaughan Gething: Let me finish this point. It does not stretch to all the scenarios of concern that were raised in the contribution by Helen Mary Jones. I don't want to return to being a lawyer again, but you do need to look at the purpose of the Bill while understanding its provisions and any action taken under it, especially when that counts as secondary legislation. I'll happily take the intervention.
