Vaughan Gething: Well, it neatly reinforces the fact that we face workforce challenges in a variety of different areas within healthcare professions. And there’s been no attempt to hide from that. In fact, we want to positively be proactive and go out and say, ‘Who do we need within the primary care team?’ That’s why I talk about other professionals. It’s why I’m really pleased to hear that...
Vaughan Gething: It’s a fair point about how we deal with Welsh as part of the importance of communication to deliver effective health and care. We know that for a range of people who have dementia, they often default to their first language and so it becomes more difficult to understand and communicate in other languages that they may have learned in life. So, there is a real imperative about the quality...
Vaughan Gething: I thank Julie Morgan for the series of questions and the examples she gives from her own constituency of Cardiff North. I’ll start with the point you make about the position that Cardiff finds itself in, which is different to lots of other parts of Wales. It is an expanding city: that is a positive thing but that does bring different challenges. It’s why I’m careful, when other Members...
Vaughan Gething: I thank the UKIP’s spokesperson for her series of comments and questions. I’ll just start at the beginning with the unfortunate but necessary. When you say that the—. The Government doesn’t accept that there is a crisis, and I think the language really matters. We accept there’s a very real challenge, and it’s particular in different parts of Wales, and there’s a challenge right...
Vaughan Gething: Thank you again for the series of questions, and again the constructive engagement, both before today and during the day as well. I’m happy to say that the areas that we are looking to deal with today were in our minds before the Welsh Conservatives laid their debate plan. It’s a funny coincidence, isn’t it? But there we are. In terms of the points you make about the previous campaign,...
Vaughan Gething: I thank the Member for the series of questions and the broadly constructive manner in which he has engaged with the statement. I will turn first of all to your finishing point, about setting a target for the number of GPs. We have not set a target for the additional number of GPs, for the simple reason that what we are looking to do is maximise the number of GPs that we can train to meet fill...
Vaughan Gething: Thank you, Deputy Presiding Officer. Our Welsh Labour manifesto made a commitment to take action to attract more GPs to Wales and to encourage more doctors to train here. We also agreed with Plaid Cymru, as part of the compact to move Wales forward, to put in place plans to train additional GPs and other primary care professionals. Our vision for the Welsh NHS is an integrated health service...
Vaughan Gething: Yes, a couple of seconds.
Vaughan Gething: I’m very pleased to say that discussion is taking place. At the ministerial task group that I set up—I chaired it a few weeks ago—it is part of our ongoing and engaging discussion. Indeed, in the early months of my time in this particular post, I’ve met those particular stakeholders, and they are continuing to work with the Government on designing and delivering our campaign. I’m...
Vaughan Gething: Thank you, Llywydd. I’m grateful to the Conservative Party for tabling today’s debate, and the opportunity it provides to set out the significant work being done in this area by health boards, trusts and the Welsh Government. There are, of course, challenges for recruitment and retention in Wales, across the NHS family in the UK and further afield in most western healthcare systems. I can...
Vaughan Gething: I thank the Member for her questions and comments. People regularly talk about the morale of staff within the service and the worry about the level of confidence the public has in the health service, and, frankly, that is affected by the way we talk about the service. When you talk about ‘serious failings’ across healthcare in Wales, it is no surprise that the debate is injected with a...
Vaughan Gething: I thank the Member for the question and the comments, and it is fair to say that there is a positive ambition and vision from Cardiff and Vale health board. You’re right to point out the significant progress that has been made and sustained on waiting times in A&E and, indeed, in cancer care as well. There’s more to do but we do recognise progress that the health board has made. On your...
Vaughan Gething: Well, the point to make about targeted intervention, in response to the comments that have just been made, is that these are targeted on particular areas of the service, and it’s where the Welsh Government will be working with and alongside those organisations, helping to direct them along a path of improvement. In the other areas of their operation, they retain the responsibility that they...
Vaughan Gething: Thank you for the series of questions. There are a range of different challenges in each of the boards, as I have mentioned before, and I’ve discussed the financial challenge of Hywel Dda and the fact that, for Cardiff and Vale, one of the areas for their move to targeted intervention was our confidence in their ability to balance their books this year and through the next iteration of...
Vaughan Gething: I thank the Member for her comments. There’s something of a contrast from the start to the end, welcoming on the one hand the action taken and then regretting the action taken towards the end. I think the honest truth is that the targeted intervention is not just an important recognition and reflection of where we are, but it is about supporting those organisations to improve. There are...
Vaughan Gething: Thank you for the question and the points made. I think it is worth reminding ourselves that there is a range of areas where Hywel Dda does particularly well—on diagnostics, for example, it’s done particularly well, and it’s in a position where, at the end of the last year, no-one was waiting more than eight weeks. So, there is a range of positives for Hywel Dda as well as their...
Vaughan Gething: Thank you for the series of follow-up questions. In terms of your broad point about NHS finance across Wales, of course, eight of our 10 organisations achieved financial balance last year. One of those that did not is Hywel Dda. That’s a direct contrast with the position in England, where eight out of 10 acute hospitals trusts are not achieving financial balance. The point about planning...
Vaughan Gething: Thank you for the question. Following the latest routine tripartite meeting between the Welsh Government, Health Inspectorate Wales, and the Wales Audit Office, it was agreed that the three organisations that you’ve mentioned should be escalated to the targeted intervention status in our escalation and intervention framework. I issued a written statement on this to all Assembly Members on 7...
Vaughan Gething: Thank you for the question. It is, of course, a matter of fact that we have more GPs than ever before in the health service; the challenge always is how many staff we need at what grades to provide the quality of care that people will rightly expect, and it will be a changing model of care. Horeb is an example of a model of care where they could not recruit and they couldn’t attract other...
Vaughan Gething: Thank you for the question. We will continue to work in partnership with health boards and trusts to market Wales and the NHS Wales as an attractive place for doctors to train, work and live. We will continue to prioritise those hard-to-fill specialties where recruitment challenges remain right across the UK.
