Angela Burns: I think Mike Hedges makes a really good point to bring this question up, because they are so important, and I really respect the 2020 target that the Welsh Government have of 2,000 hectares of trees to be planted per year. However, I am concerned that, in tandem with that, and, as a response to a freedom of information request submitted by the Welsh Conservatives, we established that, across...
Angela Burns: I'd like to start off by asking you: what can we do to get the public health message out loud and clear? In your statement today, you refer to various organisations, various departments, the public health website. Well, to be frank, I don't honestly think many members of the ordinary public will leap to consult the Public Health Wales website as a matter of first resort. So, I just wonder if...
Angela Burns: I have three key areas I'd like to briefly touch on, and then a series of questions. First of all, Minister, I'd like to thank you very much for all the communication with me, the telephone calls, and the meetings that you have afforded all of the opposition parties to keep us in the loop, both from yourself and the First Minister. Secondly, I would like to thank the staff in the NHS in...
Angela Burns: First Minister, in the first eight weeks of this year, I've already dealt with four different sets of parents who have come to me bereft, in tears, not knowing what to do, because their child has started to self-harm or has been self-harming for some time. And of course, it is sometimes a precursor leading into eating disorders, and so on. What seems to be very difficult for them to find is...
Angela Burns: I'm very grateful you've allowed me to gatecrash the end of this debate. I wasn't going to speak, but, actually, I found the content of it has completely exercised me. I absolutely refute all notion that there should be any rolling back of devolution, whatsoever. What we need to do—and I'm not going to stand here either and say what we need to do is split the difference between the Assembly...
Angela Burns: Some years ago, I met Carolyn, a truly inspirational woman who went on to tell me that she was a SWAN. Slightly taken aback, I asked her to explain that, and that was when I began to really understand the challenges faced by people who have rare diseases and undiagnosed conditions, also known as syndromes without a name, hence SWAN. Building awareness of rare disease is important, because one...
Angela Burns: Diolch, Llywydd. Good afternoon, Minister.
Angela Burns: Minister, I am here to make an unashamed pitch, to ask Welsh Government to support the St Clears railway station application to Network Rail to open up a railway station again in St Clears. It was closed in 1964, and there has been a campaign that's been long running for the last decade to try to reopen it. St Clears is a burgeoning town. The absence of that railway station is an absolute gap...
Angela Burns: 1. What is the Welsh Government doing to improve public transport connectivity in west Wales? OAQ55126
Angela Burns: Well, you are the First Minister.
Angela Burns: You've cut it year on year and we can give you the statistics, First Minister.
Angela Burns: And, First Minister, you are responsible for the Welsh Labour Government.
Angela Burns: Between—. I'm giving you the years. Between 2010-11 and 2015-16—
Angela Burns: First Minister, you were the special adviser to the—. You are now in Government, you were the health Minister, you were the finance Minister and now you're the First Minister.
Angela Burns: Maybe I should call you First Minister Pontius Pilate. The Welsh Conservatives do recognise that winter pressures are no longer exclusive to winter months. Poor performance is now a year-round reality and whilst there are particular issues experienced in winter, overall performance continues to decline, which in and of itself, Llywydd, must bring a ferocious level of stress and exhaustion...
Angela Burns: I will in a moment, Jenny. In fact, winter 2019-20 represents the highest number of patients and the result is that patient safety is being compromised, staff morale is at an all-time low. While money for winter pressures, Minister, is welcome, ad hoc cash injections are simply a temporary solution. What the NHS needs is a substantial increase in resources, which should be deployed to ensure...
Angela Burns: Llywydd, thank you. I formally move the motion before us, tabled today in the name of the Welsh Conservatives by Darren Millar. You will see that we ask that the Welsh Assembly 'Notes the concerns expressed by patients and clinicians across Wales regarding the performance and future of NHS emergency departments. 'Rejects proposals by Cwm Taf Morgannwg University Health Board which could lead...
Angela Burns: Okay. So, I'd like you to work one more miracle, and that's about a drug called Kuvan. Now, Kuvan is to people with PKU what Orkambi is to other people with conditions. Now, we've been waiting for 12 years for the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence to really get to grips with Kuvan. Earlier this month, Jeremy Hunt, the former health Secretary, called on Matt Hancock, the...
Angela Burns: Well, thank you for that, because that's actually quite a positive answer. I'm the current chair of the cross-party group on rare and orphan diseases here, and I was actually shocked when I met a whole group of people with PKU, because it's not just—. I think you termed it a 'pretty controlled regime'. Imagine spending your entire life living on soups and shakes, with the added disadvantage...
Angela Burns: Diolch, Llywydd. Minister, phenylketonuria, which we'll call PKU because it's much easier, is a very rare genetic metabolic disorder that affects around one in 10,000 people in the UK. Patients living with PKU are not able to metabolise phenylalanine, which is an amino acid that's found in the proteins within your brain. And you're born with it, and, as soon as you are born, if you do not...
