Vaughan Gething: Yes. This year has been the busiest on record for Welsh emergency care services. Last month was the busiest September on record for emergency department attendances and for the most urgent ambulance calls. Despite the 7 per cent rise in emergency department attendances compared to last September, we actually saw, treated or discharged more people within four hours, and the median wait was two...
Vaughan Gething: Well, that's a fairly predictable and not at all helpful way to try and address a very problem that exists as we face into winter. There are challenges right across the UK system. I'm responsible for the challenges here in Wales. There are a range of measures that are already being taken—for example, work being taken in two boards with a particular challenge, both the Aneurin Bevan...
Vaughan Gething: Actually, on delayed transfers of care, we're at historic lows. When I became the Deputy Minister more than five years ago now, one of the subjects that I did address at that time was the challenge that we had in delayed transfers of care, and that was about bringing health and social care together, about recognising there is a shared challenge, not meeting them separately, and we have seen...
Vaughan Gething: We’ve got a variety of challenges to try and address, and something we are deliberately doing is exactly that on our Choose Well message, and to better equip the wider primary care team to do so, whether that’s the steps we’re taking on eye care, with the emergency eye care service we have, which they don’t have across the border—it’s widely recognised as being a...
Vaughan Gething: Thank you. We have an absolute commitment in Wales to the provision of recommended and proven effective cancer treatments. This is achieved through the new treatment fund for medicines. By August of this year the new treatment fund had provided rapid access to 205 medicines, including 86 for cancer, and has cut the time it takes to provide newly-recommended medicines from an average of 90...
Vaughan Gething: Look, we had a review at the start of this Assembly term because of issues that Members around the Chamber have raised about the apparent inequalities in access, and people’s inability to understand the system. And, to be fair, the system wasn’t an easy one to understand for clinicians or indeed for members of the public. Following the review, we’ve implemented all of the 27...
Vaughan Gething: There are a range of cancer groups taking part in the cancer alliance, including those interested in ovarian cancer, and it's part of our research, interest and activity. I'll happily write to the Member with specifics on what we're doing in the research activity in this area, but we're not in control of all that research activity, of course; that depends on where those clinical studies do...
Vaughan Gething: Well, obviously, I'm not aware of the individual circumstances the Member has referred to, but I wouldn't try to defend five cancellations for serious surgery. I'd want to understand what's happened and why. And, in each of these cases where our system doesn't deliver the outcomes in the timely manner that we'd want, there is always learning for what to do in the future, as well as a need to...
Vaughan Gething: Again, I can't obviously comment on an individual case that I haven't heard about before. But, again, I'm not going to try and defend what doesn't sound like appropriate care and what doesn't sound like the sort of experience or outcome that any of us would want to have. I'm interested in understanding the individual's circumstances and what that tells us about the whole system. And, as you...
Vaughan Gething: Well, I think it was unfortunate in the reference to Cwm Taf, because we're dealing with a system failure there with real individual harm it's caused, and we're looking at it at a system level. There's never been an incident where I've tried to say that the healthcare system does not have responsibility to individuals throughout it, and I expect our system to be able to deal with those. In...
Vaughan Gething: Well, I've set out a process of intervention to provide the appropriate reassurance that everyone would want to have, whether they live within the Cwm Taf area or not, about the safety and the prospects for the future of that service, and I've set out not just the independent oversight panel, but the work being done around the board. And I will make statements when I'm in a position to do so....
Vaughan Gething: In terms of the work that's already being done, you will no doubt have read the comments made by not just the independent oversight panel, but they do extend and they do recognise the more broad improvements that are being made under the leadership of the interim chief executive, and that change in culture is taking place at board level, from the reports provided by David Jenkins. I'm not...
Vaughan Gething: That isn't true.
Vaughan Gething: Well, I really do regret the tone and the content of a significant amount of what the Member said.
Vaughan Gething: When the Member says that five health boards are in a form of special measures, that is simply not true—simply not true—
Vaughan Gething: The Member should deal with the range of the facts of the matter and the reality of the commitment to improvement and the reality of what is said. I don't take the Member's recollection and recounting for all of the exact language used by David Jenkins, but I do know, in the meetings that I've had directly with him, his view is that they've done all you could expect them to do to make the...
Vaughan Gething: Actually, the first port of call is to look at the childhood immunisation rates in addition to the potential for catch-up, because if we do safely vaccinate an even higher portion of the population, then that is the best protection for all of us. Public Health Wales, working together with colleagues and public health teams in each of the health boards, are looking again at what to do to raise...
Vaughan Gething: We regularly provide statements to reassure the public about the safety and efficacy of all the vaccines that are provided and the science and the evidence base behind them, as opposed to the suspicion and the growth of fake news in particular, a range of its proponents in a variety of different positions of influence. We're not in a position where we need to consider what Matt Hancock has...
Vaughan Gething: Yes, thank you. Digital innovation is a key driver of change. 'A Healthier Wales' sets out our commitment to support the use of digital technologies to improve health and care services in Wales. This includes significant additional investment in digital priorities and builds on existing support for technology innovation and adoption.
Vaughan Gething: Some of it is looking at how we are reforming our digital architecture in Wales, the successor role to NHS Wales Informatics Service, as part of a special health authority, but more broadly, again, about the culture, and the role that we think that the chief digital officer for health and care can play to both advise the Government on future strategy, but also to lead the digital health and...
