Rhun ap Iorwerth: Thank you for that response. Perhaps the First Minister will be aware, following an item on ITV Wales news, about the story of Emma Stenson, from my constituency, who has turned to crowd funding to try and pay her way through a postgraduate course to become a physican associate in Bangor. Now, Emma has a first class degree in medical sciences, but she is having difficulty in affording the...
Rhun ap Iorwerth: May I also associate myself with the question and the comments made by the Member for Cardiff North? It might be useful for the First Minister to put health on the agenda in discussions with the UK Government in relation to our exit from the EU. Would the First Minister, in that context, be prepared to raise the issue of the need for Wales to be able to determine the level of visas to be...
Rhun ap Iorwerth: 7. Will the First Minister make a statement on funding for postgraduate students in Wales? OAQ(5)0434(FM)[W]
Rhun ap Iorwerth: Thank you very much, Deputy Presiding Officer, and thank you to everyone who’s participated in this debate. I have just a few minutes left. May I first of all thank Sian Gwenllian for highlighting how appreciative we should be of professional care workers across Wales, a point that’s been echoed by a number of Members? It is extremely important that those professionals are given the...
Rhun ap Iorwerth: I will point out, and I’m sure you’ll forgive me, the irony of a Conservative Member talking about the need to invest in social care at a time when we have seen so many cuts. Although, of course, I have noted that the party here in the Assembly perhaps takes a different approach. There are finite budgets, of course, and I’ll help the Government out in those terms, but one of the things...
Rhun ap Iorwerth: Thank you very much, Deputy Presiding Officer. I am pleased to open this debate on social care, carers and community hospitals. We often discuss, as we should do in this Chamber, the health service—the NHS—but it is extremely important that we always bear in mind that, behind the NHS, there is an ecosystem of support of social care, third sector groups and unpaid carers—all of them...
Rhun ap Iorwerth: I don’t want to rehearse what Dai Lloyd, the committee Chair, has already said, but I certainly want to put on record that I agree with the comments that we’ve just heard and agree with the conclusions of this report. Of course, there are additional demands arising during the winter months, particularly, as we heard during our inquiry, in terms of the kind of health problems arising with...
Rhun ap Iorwerth: Thank you for that answer. In a recent audit of health issues brought to my attention by constituents, ophthalmology actually was near the top of the list, making me think that there is a particular issue here. Of course, with ophthalmology, a long waiting time is more than just an inconvenience or a longer time than necessary in pain, because we know that long waiting times for some patients...
Rhun ap Iorwerth: I went on a visit on Monday to Cemlyn, which is a coastal site owned by the National Trust on the north Anglesey coast. It’s a very important site in terms of biodiversity, including a high percentage of the global population of the sandwich tern. It is one of the oldest nature reserves in Britain, going back almost a century. Anyone who’s familiar with Cemlyn will know that it’s in the...
Rhun ap Iorwerth: Will the Cabinet Secretary make a statement on the Welsh Government’s response to the Healthcare Inspectorate Wales report on ophthalmology services in Wales? EAQ(5)0116(HWS)
Rhun ap Iorwerth: I’ve also raised concerns in this Chamber with the First Minister on a series of announcements in my constituency. There have been further announcements recently on financial institutions, not only banks, closing: HSBC in Holyhead, and the Yorkshire Building Society in Llangefni. They are the latest two. The outcome of this, of course, is that there is a centralisation of services in...
Rhun ap Iorwerth: Will you take an intervention? Will you take an intervention?
Rhun ap Iorwerth: Would you give way?
Rhun ap Iorwerth: I’ll take another intervention, by all means, or we can return to the subject at hand.
Rhun ap Iorwerth: There is no intervention because the Member is, quite frankly, being ridiculous. In amendment 5, we become more specific about how primary care needs to improve. It requires a combination of primary care, secondary care and social care working together far more, with investments made in the most appropriate place rather than setting arbitrary percentages, and working alongside wider...
Rhun ap Iorwerth: Are you able to provide any evidence of that?
Rhun ap Iorwerth: Diolch yn fawr iawn, Lywydd. I move the amendments tabled in my name. It is a timely and appropriate debate, perhaps not for the reasons the party opposite think. It’s timely because, once again, the party’s new leader has confirmed that his party’s long-term goal is to privatise the NHS—[Interruption]. He has, once again, placed on record his view that he has not changed his mind...
Rhun ap Iorwerth: [Continues.]—a full public inquiry shouldn’t be any reason for the Government to delay, any further, coming to a just settlement for those people who have suffered. I will of course take the intervention.
Rhun ap Iorwerth: I’m grateful to the Member for making that intervention, and she’s absolutely right, of course, that what we want is a full, a complete, inquiry. We’ve waited long enough to get the answers to the questions that we ask. I’m grateful that that point has been made. Inquiries that we have seen in Scotland have been useful in terms of the compensation structure, but it’s not enough in...
Rhun ap Iorwerth: Thank you very much, Deputy Presiding Officer. I’d like to thank everyone who has contributed to this debate this afternoon. I’ll thank also some who haven’t had the opportunity in this afternoon’s debate to express their opinion on record. I’ll name Jenny Rathbone, of course, who’s one who’s signed this motion and who is here in the Chamber supporting this 100 per cent, this...
