Angela Burns: Just a point of clarification, because that's really positive. Does that include all care workers, including the ones in domiciliary settings as well as care homes? I just wanted to clarify.
Angela Burns: I'd like to thank Janet Finch-Saunders for bringing this very important debate forward, because we need to demonstrate that we value the staff in our care home sector. Too often, the care home sector is seen in a pejorative way, as not quite up there with nurses or the other medical professions, and yet they are absolutely vital to the continuation and the cohesion of our society, and in...
Angela Burns: I'm grateful to be able to speak on the committee's report. I'm delighted, actually, we did this one-day report, because it shone a light on a part of the NHS here in Wales that is so very vital to people's long-term health and yet sometimes is really overlooked. And I'm pleased that the Government has accepted all the recommendations, although I do have commentary on that. 'Everyone should...
Angela Burns: Thank you for that. And I do understand your drive and ambition to help small businesses in Wales. But, of course, last week, the shadow Chancellor, for the shadow bench, stated at your conference that he'd introduce a 32-hour week within a decade if Labour come into power. Now, how does this equate with your desire to encourage small business growth, as employers will have limited capacity...
Angela Burns: 2. What plans does the Welsh Government have to assist small business growth in Wales? OAQ54430
Angela Burns: I'm pleased to receive this update from you, Minister, because, whether it's a deal or no deal, we need to get Brexit done. Now, the Welsh Conservatives support the result of the referendum. People in Wales voted overwhelmingly to leave, and it is incumbent on Welsh Government to make the requisite preparations. And, let's be frank, leaving without a deal is a direct result of Labour in...
Angela Burns: Of course, the e-referral system is a very positive step forward in terms of reducing waiting times in the Cynon valley and throughout the rest of Wales. However, another one of the problems we have is a crucial shortage of orthodontists. What's the Welsh Government doing to recruit more orthodontists?
Angela Burns: Today is World Pharmacists Day, a time to recognise the contribution that pharmacists and their teams make to world heath. Co-ordinated by the international pharmaceutical federation, World Pharmacists Day brings to the fore the varied work pharmacists undertake in various countries. For example, in Africa, pharmacists provide health education seminars and manage clinics for chronic diseases...
Angela Burns: Thank you, Presiding Officer. Minister, we already have people who are leaving Wales to live in other parts of the home nations in order to be able to access drugs that they cannot access here. So, given Jeremy Corbyn's giveaway speech at conference, when he talked about having social care free at the point of delivery, could you confirm whether or not that is one of the work streams that...
Angela Burns: Thank you, Deputy Presiding Officer. I formally move those amendments. But I'm afraid that my colleague over the Chamber here, Llyr Huws Gruffydd, has said exceptionally eloquently pretty much everything I wanted to say. Because we have an NHS that is under an immense amount of pressure. We have staff who work over and above the call of duty. They work longer hours and they don't chase...
Angela Burns: If my esteemed colleague would just hold on a few more moments, I will develop that a little bit more. But, what you have just said absolutely reinforces our call for a clean air Bill, because those are the kinds of discussions that we as an Assembly, within all our committees and taking appropriate evidence from people, could actually start to boil down—how far can we push it, where do we...
Angela Burns: Thank you, Deputy Presiding Officer. I'm delighted to move the motion tabled in the name of Darren Millar. During the debate today the Welsh Conservatives will demonstrate that not only does Wales currently have the worst air quality in the UK—a damning statistic in itself—but it's further compounded by the awful reality that 6 per cent of deaths annually in Wales are as a result of poor...
Angela Burns: I'd like to thank the committee very much for doing this report. Unfortunately, I personally was absent on the day that you did the one-day report, but I've read your report, I've read the Government response, and of course I'm reflecting the commentary of many of my constituents who come to see me over these kinds of services. And I noted the Government's response to the recommendations made...
Angela Burns: Of course, when times are tough, we need to be far more creative, and I'd like to bring your attention, Minister, to an organisation called Dr.M'z in Carmarthen. It's a youth project. It's highly successful. It's extremely popular. It has fought tooth and nail to carry on surviving. And it is funded by Carmarthen County Council in part, but also by about seven or eight other large...
Angela Burns: Minister, Brexit tends to generate far more heat than light these days, with rumours and claims and counter-claims swirling around, and I think it behoves us all to try to learn the realities that are there on the ground. Our parliamentary colleagues in Westminster—there's a group called the Young Legal Aid Lawyers who have taken some 45 Members with them, out shadowing them, out on the...
Angela Burns: Thank you, Presiding Officer. Minister, as I said at the beginning of my speech, the Welsh Government have been brave, but you need to be braver still, and there are a couple of very, very clear things that you could do. The treatments here aren't expensive. What we need is consistency, we need the feet of the health boards to be held to the fire to stop them from cancelling again and again...
Angela Burns: Thank you. I'm delighted to have the opportunity, Deputy Presiding Officer, to open the debate today. I want to begin by thanking Elin and the team at Royal National Institute of Blind People Cymru for their assistance in providing some excellent case studies and for enabling and illuminating and moving the patient panel, and I know a great number of them are with us today.
Angela Burns: It's a timely debate because of the recent publication of the new performance measures, especially as sight loss is a subject that will impact many of us, either directly or indirectly, throughout our lives. I want to begin by actually thanking the Minister and the Welsh Government for listening to users and experts, and for introducing the new performance measures for eye care patients. It...
Angela Burns: Thank you, Deputy Presiding Officer. I'd like to thank Helen Mary Jones for bringing forward this proposal for a Bill on health service management. I can assure you that the Welsh Conservatives would not only support your proposals, but seek to strengthen and increase some of the proposed Bill's provisions, because it ties in very much with a five-point plan for health that we announced in...
Angela Burns: Minister, it's entirely about money and about resources. And, as I've said, you've got the resources there—I can pop you in my car, drive you down there, and show you them. The money is not very great. I totally understand that if you're talking about a very, very expensive treatment, then you might look at the cost-benefit analysis. I can totally understand that, if you're talking about an...
