Vaughan Gething: Thank you for the comments and questions. It's good to see you back in the Chamber, Angela; we have missed you. I should point out—and you haven't been here for some time, and I really am pleased to see you back—we've had this on the business statement for some weeks that I would be making a statement today; it hasn't been produced as a strategic attempt to try and spike the debate...
Vaughan Gething: Thank you for the comments and questions. I think there was a slight misunderstanding at the start about the comments I was making about four years. I was making the point it is an unusually long period of time to be in special measures. I'm giving two and only two examples of health organisations that have been in special measures for a similar period of time. It's not a badge of honour;...
Vaughan Gething: Thank you for the comments and questions. I want to reassure not just the Member but the wider public that special measures are not business as usual. This is about seeing the health board improve and move beyond special measures. And, as I have said repeatedly, I'm not going to set an artificial deadline for special measures to end. That would be an act of convenience for me but absolutely...
Vaughan Gething: Thank you for the series of comments and questions. I will endeavour to deal with all of Darren's comments and questions within the time allotted, Deputy Presiding Officer. I would gently say that the link to the unfortunate patient death that he described and the six additional posts—there is not a direct link to be drawn in the way that the Member tries to. Since my time at the start of...
Vaughan Gething: Diolch, Llywydd. Six months on from the publication of the amber review, I am pleased to update Members on implementation of the review’s recommendations. The review made nine recommendations and identified a number of areas where further work was required in order to gain an improved understanding of the challenges and opportunities to improve responses to calls in the amber category. In...
Vaughan Gething: Although it has only been six months since the commencement of the programme, I'm encouraged to note improvement in the typical response time to patients in the amber category. The latest available data shows an improvement in the typical response time during every month between December last year and March of this year when compared with the same period in the previous winter. There has been...
Vaughan Gething: Thank you for the comments and the questions. I'll deal with your final point, actually, because it follows on from some of the conversations we had earlier more generally about our whole system, because the lost hours are an impact upon the staff and the patient, they're an impact on the community, because the risk that is being managed if an ambulance is held up at a hospital site means...
Vaughan Gething: On the final point, it is of course my expectation that the Stroke Association, in work in partnership with the NHS family, will be putting forward the sort of measures they want to see. That's whole point about having them engaged in the conversation, to make sure they can put forward their perspective and we end up with something that is useful as opposed to simply yet another process...
Vaughan Gething: I don't think the capacity and demand review, or indeed the mapping exercise, is entirely related to co-responders at all, actually. It's about understanding properly across the whole service, having introduced a new clinical response model, having had a variety of methods to look at piloting different ways of running the service—to understand what exists in different parts of the country,...
Vaughan Gething: Thank you for the question. The Welsh Government is committed to working in partnership with NHS Wales employers and trade unions through the Welsh partnership forum to support staff with mental health problems. This is in line with the NHS Wales core principles and the quadruple aim of 'A Healthier Wales' for a motivated and sustainable health and social care workforce.
Vaughan Gething: Yes, I'm happy to give the commitment about the Government's approach to supporting our staff within the health service. That goes into not just wanting to recruit the right numbers of staff across the service but also the additional investment we're making in training. I'm pleased to confirm that on the nurse staffing levels Act we are taking forward our commitment to roll out the Act, as...
Vaughan Gething: Yes, I'm happy to expand further because it's a good example of how we do use our system here in Wales. The partnership forum draws together the Government, employers and trade unions. So, the partnership forum is already taking steps to look at that good practice, to draw it together, and then to try to make sure that the recently agreed policy on managing absence in the workplace that does...
Vaughan Gething: I fully recognise there are different points of stress within the life of staff within our national health service, and for those in particular who deal with emergency aspects or end-of-life aspects there's particular stress that goes along with that. Any element of service change is unsettling for any group of staff in any particular part of business, industry or the voluntary sector. So, we...
Vaughan Gething: Thank you for the question. Our support for people living with all neurological conditions is set out within our neurological conditions delivery plan. The vision is for people with a neurological condition to have timely access to fully integrated primary, community, secondary and specialist care designed around the needs of the individual person.
Vaughan Gething: That is the point about what we're looking to try to deliver: a service that is genuinely designed around the needs of the person; to understand those needs will be different according to that person, not the condition. You see the person, not the condition and that is the way on all aspects of healthcare to be delivered. I recognise there's further to travel in some aspects than others. In...
Vaughan Gething: And that's part of the work that the implementation group are leading. I've actually asked my officials to meet with the implementation group to look at the progress that we are making because I do think progress has been slower than it should have been, and commitments that were made within the delivery plan on how the money that the Government has allocated should be used. I expect there to...
Vaughan Gething: Yes, we're taking an integrated approach to the future of health and social care. That's why we have, for the first time across the United Kingdom, a properly joined-up health and social care plan, 'A Healthier Wales', designed together between health, local government and the third sector. And you'll see that, in the last budget, I took a decision to put part of the moneys through the health...
Vaughan Gething: Because we still have a system where social care, as you know, has a means element within it. And we're actually looking at the future funding of social care, as you know as well. I'm the chair of a cross-ministerial group looking at social care funding options for now and the future, and you'll know from previous, very public comments that I'm interested in how we use the new powers of this...
Vaughan Gething: There are two points that I'd make on this one. The first is that, of course, when we're comparing opportunities to use general taxation, we're not yet in a position to do so. But I do recently note a study picked up by the BBC that noted that, in Wales, citizens have a much more generous level of support from this Government for their social care needs than citizens across the border in...
Vaughan Gething: Yes. Thank you for the question. The bereavement scoping study that I've previously committed to is making progress. Over 200 responses have been received and the data collection period has been extended until the end of this month. An interim study report will be provided to the end-of-life care board later this month, and the final report is expected in October of this year.
