Baroness Mair Eluned Morgan: Now, it appears that what those who have signed the petition are saying is that they want the right number of nurses and healthcare staff in the system to meet the care needs of the people of Wales, and that's my aspiration too. But a legislative pledge that cannot be delivered won't secure that, and I can't commit the Welsh Government to that approach. Rather, the steps that will help to...
Baroness Mair Eluned Morgan: Well, we have had a couple of interventions.
Baroness Mair Eluned Morgan: That's a 'no', Darren. Thank you.
Baroness Mair Eluned Morgan: Thank you. Well, not while I'm standing on my feet in the middle of a debate. So, I have asked for ideas from the professionals who are helping me with this.
Baroness Mair Eluned Morgan: Thanks very much. Well, I have asked HEIW to do some work on this, so I'll come on to that in a second, if you don't mind. The second point that I think is really important to understand is, even if those tools were available for every nursing situation, it's simply inaccurate to suggest that extending section 25B to all of those areas would result in giving Wales 'the full team of nurses',...
Baroness Mair Eluned Morgan: Thank you very much. I welcome this debate today, and I thank Members for their comments.
Baroness Mair Eluned Morgan: As Minister for Health and Social Services, I, of course, appreciate the challenges faced daily by our NHS workforce. We've come through a challenging pandemic, largely due to the incredible efforts of our front-line workers, not least the nursing staff, and we will forever be grateful to them for that. Now, I'm under no illusion that the pandemic is not over and we don't know what surprises...
Baroness Mair Eluned Morgan: Diolch yn fawr. There is a huge pressure on our services at the moment. I'll just give you a sense of the difficulty we have, in particular in relation to delayed transfers of care. We're at a point now where we have around 1,200 people ready to leave our hospitals. Because of the difficulty of getting them out because the support system is not quite there in the communities, we have around...
Baroness Mair Eluned Morgan: Great. Thank you very much, Russell. I think I need to be absolutely clear that we have given very clear guidance to NHS boards that actually the winter planning has to be done early. So, we've asked them to do it as part of their normal planning, because if you leave it until now it's too late; you already need things in place. So, we've given them the money, they needed to build that into...
Baroness Mair Eluned Morgan: As I mentioned earlier, our testing and contact tracing teams are now focusing on targeting those who are most vulnerable to harm in our society. People who are at high risk of becoming severely ill due to COVID-19 are eligible for treatment with antiviral or antibody therapies. If those people who are eligible for treatment test positive for COVID-19 and report their lateral flow test...
Baroness Mair Eluned Morgan: Thank you very much, Llywydd.
Baroness Mair Eluned Morgan: We're approaching what is likely to be a very challenging winter period for the people in Wales as we face a cost-of-living and energy crisis and, of course, ongoing pressures within our health and care systems. Our planning for winter for the health and care system has been developed over the past few months within our existing planning arrangements. Our planned care plan, developed in...
Baroness Mair Eluned Morgan: Despite the challenges of recent years, we have several stories of success here in Wales, and these will work as catalysts to achieve our target. We've already mentioned about the opt-out tests for blood-borne viruses that were introduced in Swansea prison in 2016. By doing this, we succeeded in having micro-elimination in the prison—the first in the UK to do that. And this was featured in...
Baroness Mair Eluned Morgan: Diolch yn fawr, Dirprwy Llywydd. Thank you for allowing me the opportunity to provide an update on what we’re doing in Wales to help reach the World Health Organization's target to eliminate hepatitis C as a significant public health threat by 2030. The World Health Organization target is a 90 per cent reduction in incidence, and a 65 per cent reduction in mortality due to hepatitis C by...
Baroness Mair Eluned Morgan: Formally.
Baroness Mair Eluned Morgan: Thanks very much, Altaf, and I'm pleased to say that officials are already working with their NHS counterparts to begin that process of reviewing the standards that include hospital food. However, it is a very significant piece of work and something where, obviously, we're very keen, if we can, to make sure that we include local food in that. Now, what I don't have yet is a set timetable for...
Baroness Mair Eluned Morgan: The all-Wales nutrition and catering standards were published in 2011 to ensure hospital food meets the diverse needs of the hospital population. Work is currently under way to review those standards to ensure they continue to meet the nutritional and dietary requirements of hospital patients in Wales.
Baroness Mair Eluned Morgan: Thanks very much, Mike, and I'm sorry to hear about your mother. I think what's clear is we've got to be very careful, because, obviously, GPs see countless numbers of people with headaches or issues with balance or vague symptoms, such as fatigue, so it's very difficult, I think, for them to be absolutely clear. And there is already very well recognised professional guidance in place for GPs...
Baroness Mair Eluned Morgan: Thanks very much, Joel. I think, whenever we're dealing with physical issues where people are really confronting very, very difficult situations, then we do have to consider in particular, perhaps, the mental health impact on people trying to deal with those situations, and so, obviously, where possible, a holistic needs assessment should be made. But I am pleased that we do have some real...
Baroness Mair Eluned Morgan: Thank you very much. Our programme for transforming and modernising planned care, published in April, included a commitment to continue to promote key messages about cancer symptoms and to encourage people to come forward with suspected cancer. We're also happy to support and amplify messages from cancer charities in Wales.
